Schiphol cargo volume down 14% in H1

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol's total cargo volume for the first six months of 2022 declined nearly 14 percent to 721,746 tonnes compared to H12021.

Inbound cargo volumes declined 17 percent to 364,376 tonnes, and outbound cargo volumes were down nearly 10 percent to 357,369 tonnes.

The top three destinations for cargo by tonnage were Shanghai, China; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Chicago, USA.

"Freight volumes were shipped in two categories of flights: full freighters, which accounted for 65% of total volumes, and passenger flights at 35% of total volumes," says an official release.

Outbound cargo to the Asian region decreased over 10 percent to 117,694 tonnes while inbound traffic from the region also went down by 15 percent to 123,704 tonnes.

The outbound North American market decreased over 9 percent to 84,786 tonnes with inbound traffic declining over 10 percent to 58,101 tonnes.

Cargo inbound from Latin America dropped over 22 percent to 46,827 tonnes and outbound traffic to the region went down 15 percent to 35,242 tonnes.

"The main factors attributable to the decrease observed in 2022 were the global decrease of volumes transported and the loss of volumes from a large carrier operating from Russia. The decrease follows a worldwide trend with growing capacity on passenger flights, concerns about economic development worldwide, production- and transport-issues in Asia, and the war in Ukraine."

Anne Marie van Hemert, Head of Aviation Business Development, Schiphol Airport, says: "The 2021 and 2022 figures have shown that Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is still the airport of choice for logistic companies and their customers. Now that demand for passenger flights has increased, the available airport capacity needs to be shared. In the first half-year, innovation through our Smart Cargo Mainport Program has continued. Automated Nomination has been introduced as the new standard procedure for inbound cargo, which informs customers about incoming shipments before arrival. Going forward, additional measures will be implemented for secure cargo handovers."

At the start of 2022, dnata announced over €200 million ($200 million) investment in Amsterdam to operate one of world's largest, most advanced cargo facilities at Schiphol Airport. The new facility is located in the South-East cargo area and investments will be made here to implement seamless cargo processes with zero-emission ground operations by 2030, the release said

"Schiphol looks forward to remaining an attractive hub and being the most sustainable airport with an efficient cargo flow," said van Hemert. "Together with our cargo community, we want to shape Europe's smartest cargo hub."

Schiphol is Europe's fourth largest air cargo hub and handled 1.66 million tonnes of cargo in 2021.