Amsterdam Airport Schiphol handled a total of 1,752,498 tonnes of cargo in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%, driven by strong demand in the Far East for European goods, according to figures released by Schiphol Cargo.

Asia remains Schiphol’s largest market, with Shanghai being the busiest destination. Exports to Asia grew by 8.8% to 316,097 tonnes, while imports increased by 3.1% to 299,386 tonnes.

“We have continued to build on initiatives in 2016 and 2017 with the aim of enhancing the experience of our pharmaceutical, e-commerce, and perishables customers, and our continued commitment to quality is having positive results,” said Jonas van Stekelenburg, head of cargo at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. “The upswing in e-commerce shipments, both inbound and outbound, was a large contributor to the cargo volumes for this market. A number of flights transit Europe en-route to Asia, and we can attribute a proportion of the growth in our European figures to the developing Asian market.”

A total of 496,748 air traffic movements were recorded in 2017, an increase of 3.7 % compared to 2016.

Schiphol Group, the local community, airlines and the Dutch government have agreed on a maximum of 500,000 movements until 2020.

“This is no reason to hold back on our quality initiatives; we need to stay alert, prepare for what is coming, and seek the necessary innovations,” said van Stekelenburg.

So far in 2018, there has been an increase in load factors and in ATMs as a consequence of unused slots.

“It is very positive that in this current 2017 / 2018 winter season, all requested full-freighter slots were granted, and many freighters were able to continue their business at Schiphol with ad-hoc slots,” van Stekelenburg said. “It is Schiphol’s objective to aim for sustainable growth at the airport after 2020 and air freight is an important part of that. On the belly side we expect AMS to grow in 2018 both in terms of volume and capacity. The outlook for 2018 – as, globally, we see even more air traffic growth – is a challenging one. The slot scarcity has been a challenge for us as a cargo community, and in some cases, cargo stakeholders were under-represented in the various sections of the airport community. In 2018 we will act on this, together with all freighter airlines, handlers, and other logistic service providers. Trust, increased cooperation, and improved agreements between all stakeholders are essential in this respect.”

Schiphol Cargo’s Smart Cargo Mainport programme initiatives with the Holland Flower Alliance, Pharma Gateway Amsterdam, and European Green Fast Lanes are focusing on improved information sharing and optimal landside logistics.

In May, Schiphol Cargo developed a compliance checker in partnership with Cargonaut with the aim of speeding up cargo flows by detecting errors in air waybills.

“Close collaboration with our cargo community remains vital and is a strong focus for 2018,” said van Stekelenburg. “Together we will continue to pursue our ambitions of better digital information exchange and further quality improvements in the supply chain, particularly for pharma, e-commerce and perishables.”