The cargo communities of the airports of Brussels, Liège and Ostend-Bruges have joined forces in a project aimed at digitalizing cargo customs processes. This is the first collaboration initiative between the three air cargo platforms, which facilitates the flow of goods.
The project is coordinated by Air Cargo Belgium, in collaboration with its newly-formed Liege counterpart LGG Connect.
A joint newsflash states that through the airports’ community platforms, companies will be able to uniformly exchange customs declarations for import, export, and transit with Belgian customs. To enable this, the airports use the same principles and interfaces, each on their own platform.
This unified approach will facilitate customs processes, further strengthening Belgium’s position as a logistics hub for international trade. In the coming months, this unified approach will be developed and rolled out.
EC initiative
The joint initiative follows the further roll-out of the Multi-Annual Strategic Plan for Electronic Customs (MASP-C), the next phase of the E-Customs project initiated by the European Commission in 1997. This led to the development of the Paperless Customs & Excise Systems, through which air cargo companies today still exchange part of their electronic messages with the Belgian Customs and Excise Authorities.
This will be substituted by the above-mentioned MASP-C, which will allow the companies to smoothly follow the further digitisation of customs processes at the European level through their airport’s community platforms.
New portal
Specifically, air cargo companies will be able to submit their Temporary Storage Declarations digitally via a new portal on their airport’s data platform: BRUCloud for the cargo community at Brussels Airport and LGG Tracking at Liege Airport. Both platforms will work in the same way for exchanging customs messages. They will also each be separately connected to electronic customs systems for further processing and follow-up of declarations. The customs office’s counter notification is then sent back to the companies via the portal.
CFG asked Nathan Goethals, who monitors customs matters at ACB, why the initial focus is on Temporary Storage. “Because that is the basis on which the customs declaration processes are being built,” he explains. Mr Goethals refers to the growing alignment of the airport’s processes with the Customs Administration, finalized in a Vision Document two years ago.
As a result of this, ACB joined recently joined the National Forum Steering Committee at the Belgian Customs & Excise Administration. The collaboration between BRU and LGG is a first in Belgian aviation history and Ostend-Bruges is also joining. It is the intention to further develop the digital portal before the end of 2026, but Mr Goethals could not yet predict the next stages to follow.
