Amsterdam Airport Schiphol handled a total of 1.66 million tonnes of cargo in 2016, a 2.5% year-on-year increase which set a new record for the airport.

“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 Jonas van Stekelenburg, director of cargo at Schiphol. “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.”

According to Schiphol, Asia continued to be the largest cargo market in 2016. Shanghai was the busiest destination and direct flights were launched to Ningbo and Xi’an.

“The upswing in e-commerce shipments, both inbound and outbound, was 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.”

The volume outbound to Asia fell by 7% to 290,560 tonnes and cargo inbound from Asia fell by 5% to 290,313 tonnes. Cargo outbound to Europe grew 74% to 104,061 tonnes, while inbound cargo grew 42% to 105,736 tonnes.

The airport expects more growth in the year ahead.

“Close collaboration with our cargo community remains a strong focus for 2017,” said van Stekelenburg. “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.”