Schiphol Cargo volumes up by 6.8%

Schiphol Cargo has seen cargo volumes grow over the first six months of the year, with a particularly strong April seeing 137,666 tonnes of freight transiting Europe’s third busiest cargo hub, compared to 128,843 tonnes in April 2015, up 6.8% year-on-year.

Cargo throughput for January to June 2016 was 796,801 tonnes compared to 784,567 tonnes in the same period in 2015, up 1.6% year-on-year.

There were 8,801 freighter movements from January to June 2016, compared to 8,218 in the same period in 2015, up 7.1%.

Jonas van Stekelenburg, Head of Cargo, Schiphol, said, “Compared to the other main European hubs we had a good first half year in terms of volume: we attracted some new carriers such as Jet Airways, and experienced growth of some existing carriers such as DHL.

“Asia is a very important market for us, and we are pleased to see that Schiphol remains an attractive hub for carriers from the region.”

European freight showed the strongest growth in the first two quarters of 2016, up 41.7% to 90,991 tonnes compared to 64,197 in the same period in 2015.

The strong European results in part reflect development in carriers at Schiphol. New carrier Silk Way ships to Asia via Baku and AirBridgeCargo, which has recently extended services from Schiphol, ships via Moscow. Both cities are defined as Europe.

Asia remains Schiphol’s biggest market, picking up in June to show only a 5.8% dip over the six-month period, with 276,312 tonnes from January to June 2016 compared to 293,293 tonnes in the same period in 2015.

“Our strong Cargo Community at Schiphol continues to implement forward-thinking initiatives such as Pharma Gateway Amsterdam and our Milk Run scheme because we are focused on delivering the best service possible to our customers,”, said van Stekelenburg. “We are looking forward to more growth over the rest of the year.”

Africa showed a 2.3% growth for the first six months of 2016, at 90,870 tonnes compared to 88,859 tonnes in the same period in 2015.

North America contributed 152,149 tonnes from January to June 2016, compared to 150,494 tonnes in the same period in 2015, up 1.1%.