Brussels Airport Cargo Awards presented in recognition of an exceptional cargo year

This year, because of the Covid-19 crisis and the difficult year for aviation, Brussels Airport Company was not able to continue its annual tradition of presenting the Brussels Airport Aviation Awards. But the airport does recognize and appreciate the efforts made by all those partners that have kept operating passengers flights in difficult conditions and have shown great flexibility in doing so. Because of the large contribution and the growth of the cargo community at Brussels Airport in this unusual year, Brussels Airport has presented its first Cargo Awards during a virtual event. 

With these first Cargo Awards Brussels Airport wants to recognize cargo airlines and partners who have launched new routes, achieved remarkable growth in cargo or distinguished themselves in some other way. Here are the nominees and winners in the various categories for the year 2020.   

Network Development Award Cargo Airline: Sichuan Airlines  

The Network Development Cargo Award goes to airlines that have launched new routes or achieved significant growth in cargo volumes. Sichuan Airlines is a carrier that resolutely and unconditionally decided to base its European Cargo hub at Brussels Airport and allocated all available assets into this partnership. Since their start-up at the end of 2019, the carrier has seen tremendous growth at Brussels Airport. Other nominees for this award were: Amerijet, DHL Express and Qatar Airways.  

Brucargo Award: Virgin Atlantic  

The Brucargo Award goes to our partners and stakeholders at the Brucargo area and especially those that have been active in the field of innovation, digitization, growth and partnership.  Virgin Atlantic has been awarded for jumping into the unknown, selecting Brussels Airport as their temporary continental hub with a new type of operation and continuing its business for 9 months already, operating daily passenger freighter flights. Virgin was very flexible in meeting the Brussels Airport market demand, adding bigger aircraft or increasing frequencies when requested. The team is very pro-active and is dealing with Brexit immaculately.  Other nominees for this award were the Animal Care & Inspection Center, Aviapartner Cargo, Brinks, Federal Police, and Worldwide Flight Services. 

Logistics Provider Award: Kuehne+Nagel  

The Logistics Provider Award honours our freight forwarders that take such an important position in our strategy. As organisers of the logistics chain, they are key stakeholders in the process. Winner is Kuehne+Nagel, the first tenant in the new first line building at BRUcargo Westfor their long-term commitment to BRUcargo. They have a clear focus for Brussels Airport in growing the product niches of pharmaceuticals (EU center of excellence) and perishables (new perishable gateway). Other nominees were Bpost, Eagle Air Agencies, Expeditors, Herfurth Logistics and Ziegler.  

The Environment and Safety Awards are presented to airlines or partners that have made a special contribution to the environment and the on-going improvement of safety standards and awareness. 

Environment Award: Ninatrans 

Ninatrans is awarded for their decades-long pole position in implementing sustainable innovations within the transport sector. They were the first Belgian trucking company to use Liquified Natural Gas-powered trucks, are using Longer Heavier Vehicles and now have acquired ten hydrogen-powered trucks.  

Safety Award: Federal Police 

The Federal Police is presented with the Safety Award for the vital role they play in keeping Brucargo safe and secure. They did so by appointing a local community police officer and opening a local office at Brucargo, which naturally increases their surveillance in the zone. They assist in operational issues, enforce parking authority within Brucargo to optimize truck capacity and play an active role in securing valuable cargo goods. The nominees for these awards were dnata and the Federal Police. 

Special Achievement Award: Air Cargo Belgium  

The Special Achievement Award is presented to the entire Brucargo community for the exceptional role it has played during the COVID-19 crisis. Air Cargo Belgium has earned this Award for the excellent support to the Brucargo community during this rough time.  The motivated team has been instrumental in keeping the Brucargo community together and are pushing their limits in support of the BRUcure taskforce in organising the collaboration for the COVID-19 vaccine shipments.  This has allowed Brussels Airport to strengthen its position as the preferred European pharma gateway. Air Cargo Belgium also continues to promote and support the digital strategy, especially pushing the digital green lane initiative to increase the standard use of BRUcloud landside apps. 

Other nominees for this award were: Air Cargo Belgium, ANA, DHL Express, DHL Global Forwarding, DSV, Expeditors, Kuehne+Nagel, Pfizer, Pharma.Aero, TUI & United. 

Cargo Airline Performance Award: Qatar Airways Cargo  

The Cargo Performance Award is presented to cargo airlines that excel in performance, this is calculated using the number of weekly flights, number of destinations, total quantity of cargo flown, cargo per flight and the growth in cargo tonnage.  Operating both full freighters and passenger freighter aircrafts, Qatar Airways Cargo was perfectly placed to provide their customers with high volume capacity solutions and meticulously monitored temperature sensitive solutions. With their continuously growing freighter capacity, Qatar Airways Cargo is offering a dense connectivity network between Brussels Airport and the rest of the world via Doha.