Schiphol cargo closes gap in Q3

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport handled just under 147,400 tonnes in October, a 1.4% increase over like month 2014, although volumes for the first ten months of 2015 were down by 1.1% against prior year.
October’s result at Europe’s third largest air cargo hub by volume was an improvement on prior month September, which recorded a 1.1% monthly rise but a decline of 1.4% for the first nine months versus 2014.
For comparison, Frankfurt and London-Heathrow airports, the number one and four European freight hubs, both saw cargo throughputs drop by more than four percent in September.
Schiphol’s director-cargo, Jonas van Stekelenburg, said: “We are pleased to see the gap between 2015 and 2014 narrowing, helped by recent major shipments of mobile phones, and generally strong performance in our non-Asian markets.
“The tonnages to date are still down slightly on 2014, which was a record year; but, when compared to 2013, they are actually up 6.5%. The underlying trend is generally positive, therefore.
“We can never escape the volatility of airfreight markets, but we can and will insulate our carriers and logistics community as far as possible by continuing our campaign to drive paper, inefficiency and cost from the supply chain. Innovation remains very much our major focus, as we collaborate with our stakeholders to facilitate the best possible user experience.”
The July to September 2015 third quarter volumes of 409,034 tonnes were “fractionally down” at 0.08% on the same period of 2014.
Third quarter business weakness in Asia (down 5%) and Europe (down 10%) was counteracted by stronger performances in North America (up 2.3%), Middle East (up 8%), Africa (up 4%) and Latin America (up 12%). Freighter movements were down 1.9% in the period, totaling 4,079.
Schiphol’s “stronger performance” in the third quarter brought the hub’s nine-month year to date tonnages closer to 2014’s record levels, at 1,193,604 tonnes, although still down by 1.4%.
Within the total, Asia continued to hold top position with 37.8% share of year to date tonnages, and North America took second place with 19.2%, with Middle East (13%) Africa (10.9%), Latin America (10.8%) and Europe (8.3%) accounting for the balance. Freighter movements were up 0.4% at 12,318.
Reflecting the “cooling of industrial output from China,” which is Schiphol’s single largest market, September’s year to date imports were down 2.8%, accounting for 50.6% of all cargo. Exports, however, were level with 2014, and accounted for 49.4% of traffic.