Liège Airport readies for 50,000 Chinese tourists a year

Chinese tour operator U-tour will offer charter flights from three cities to Liège Airport from 20 April. U-tour chose the airport in Liège over Brussels for its Chinese clients to start off on their tours of Europe.

The airport is to be the first in Europe to receive charter flights from China, according to director general Luc Partoune. U-tour offers flights to Liège out of Tianjin, Xian and Shenyang.

"Tourism is developing very fast in China," said Zhang Lijun, representative of the Chinese embassy in Belgium. "Last year more than 200,000 Chinese tourists visited Belgium."

U-tour offers a European tour that kicks  off with one day in Belgium, and then continues to France, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Scandinavia. The return flight also departs from Liège Airport.

Initially, there will be three flights per week between China and Liège, with each year about 50,000 Chinese passing through Liège.

To receive the extra passengers, Liège Airport will invest €700,000  in updating its terminal, and hire about 100 additional employees.