Europe’s third largest air cargo hub had a strong end to the year, with December figures up 10.4% on the same month in 2015 at 149,000 tonnes. Cargo throughput until November was up 1.8% year-on-year, with figures for January to November of 1.51 million tonnes.

“We have launched a number of initiatives to enhance the experience of our pharmaceutical, e-commerce, and perishables customers, and our continued commitment to quality is having positive results,” said Cargo Director, Jonas van Stekelenburg. “We had a strong start to 2016 due to several new carriers making use of Schiphol, and expansion by existing players, and there was an increase in traffic levels in the second half of the year resulting in a total tonnage that surpassed our expectations – an all-time record of 1.66 million tonnes of cargo.

Asia remains Schiphol’s largest market, with Shanghai, China, the busiest destination, and new direct flights launched to Xi’an and Ningbo, both in China.

“The upswing in e-commerce shipments, both inbound and outbound, were a large contributor to the cargo volumes for this market,” said van Stekelenburg. “As a large number of flights now transit Europe en route to China, we can attribute a proportion of the growth in our European figures to the developing Asian market.”

Fewer direct flights to Asia meant final figures for the region were down 5% inbound and 7% outbound to 290,313 tonnes and 290,560 tonnes respectively. Flights to Asia transiting European destinations including Baku, Azerbaijan, and Moscow, Russia, increased, however, resulting in a strong overall result for Asia cargo through the hub.

A proportion of Europe’s growth of 74% to 104,061 tonnes outbound, and 42% to 105,736 tonnes inbound was therefore down to cargo transiting to and from Asia.

Africa inbound volume grew 2% to 117,556 tonnes because of increased freighter capacity serving the perishables market. Outbound volumes to Africa were 11% down at 54,684 tonnes. 

Middle East tonnage was up 5% to 94,607 tonnes, with outbound tonnage remaining at 120,111 tonnes.

Latin America inbound cargo was up 11% at 101,706 tonnes because of a boost in flower imports from Quito, Ecuador. Outbound cargo saw a downtick of 12% at 75,125 tonnes, reflecting decreased capacity on routes to Miami, USA, and South America.

Exports from North America were down 1% to 157,621 tonnes year-on-year because of decrease in belly volume, whilst North America import volume was up 2% at 150,172 tonnes because of an increase in flights from the USA into Europe.

“The outlook for 2017 – as we see even more air traffic growth – is positive; we are very encouraged by last year’s results,” said van Stekelenburg. “Close collaboration with our cargo community remains a strong focus for 2017. Together with the Community we will continue to pursue ambitions such as better digital information exchange and further quality improvements in the supply chain, particularly for pharma, e-commerce and perishables.”

Schiphol has launched several initiatives aimed at supporting the growth of its e-commerce, pharmaceutical, and perishables customers. The Pharma Gateway Amsterdam initiative, launched in 2016, continues to develop, with three more members certified with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics (CEIV Pharma).

A new e-commerce same-day delivery service, called 12send, went operational in December.

The Holland Flower Alliance, a collaboration between RoyalFlora Holland, KLM Cargo, and Schiphol Cargo, further solidifies Schiphol’s position as Europe’s preferred flower hub.

Source: Schiphol Cargo, via FloralDaily