ASL Airlines Belgium is a Belgian cargo airline based at Liège Airport. Formerly known as TNT Airways, it operates European express services and long-haul scheduled and charter freight with Boeing 737 and 747 freighters.[1]
TNT Airways origins
The airline's origins date to 1999, and TNT Airways began operating from Liège in 2000 with BAe 146 and Airbus A300 freighters. Boeing 737-300 aircraft joined in 2003, followed by the first Boeing 747-400 in 2006. These types allowed the carrier to grow from a European express network into a worldwide cargo operator.[1]
ASL Aviation Holdings acquired TNT Airways in May 2016. The airline was renamed ASL Airlines Belgium and signed a multi-year agreement to continue supporting the combined FedEx and TNT network.[1]
Network
Liège Airport is the home base and the centre of a dense overnight European freighter operation. ASL Airlines Belgium flies narrow-body aircraft for the FedEx Express network and also manages capacity supplied by other operators. Paris Charles de Gaulle is another important European base.
Long-haul services under the ASL brand connect Liège with markets in China, Japan and the United States. In 2024 the airline became the first Belgian carrier to operate between China and the United States as part of an around-the-world routing. Weekly Liège–Ezhou rotations followed in 2025.[1]
Fleet
The airline uses Boeing 737-400SF and 737-800BCF aircraft for European express and charter services. The 737-800 conversion is part of a wider ASL fleet-renewal programme and offers improved efficiency compared with older classic freighters.
Boeing 747-400F and 747-400ERF aircraft provide long-haul and heavy-charter capacity. ASL publishes payload figures of approximately 116–117 tonnes for these wide-body freighters and uses them on scheduled services and customer-specific charters.[2]
Services and role
ASL Airlines Belgium's customers include express integrators, freight forwarders and companies needing dedicated air-cargo solutions. The narrow-body fleet is well suited to high-frequency overnight parcel routes between European cities, while the 747 fleet can carry intercontinental general cargo, large machinery and other main-deck loads.
The airline is part of the larger ASL Aviation Holdings group, an ACMI and aviation-services company with cargo and passenger airlines in several regions. Within that group, the Belgian carrier provides both the operational scale of a major express contractor and the flexibility of an independent scheduled and charter cargo airline.