Schiphol September cargo up 8% as outbound jumps 13%
Outbound shipments to North, Middle and South America and Africa drove growth, while Far East imports continued to recover from the new customs duty rule.
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol handled 127,750 tonnes of air cargo in September 2026, an 8% increase over the same month last year.
Belly cargo made up 46% of the month’s volumes and full freighters 54%. Belly’s share rose two percentage points from September 2025. Inbound traffic accounted for 52% of volumes and outbound for 48%.
Inbound volumes kept growing, up 3% year-on-year. Inbound traffic from the Far East picked up again after August. It was still 8% below the average monthly level recorded before the new customs duty rule came in, but that was better than August, when volumes were 15% short of pre-rule levels. Inbound volumes from the Middle East had looked close to fully recovered in earlier months, but fell 10% after the conflict in the region escalated.
Outbound volumes grew 13% in September last year. Shipments to the Far East rose 11%, North America 26%, Middle and South America 44%, and Africa 20%. The Middle East was the only outbound region below September 2025 levels, down 14%.
The top commodities in September were electrical machinery, flowers, fish, fruit and vegetables, pharma and spare parts.
Schiphol also handled 35,149 tonnes of Road Feeder Service (RFS) cargo during the month.
Maastricht Aachen Airport, often called Schiphol’s seventh runway, handled 4,158 tonnes in September. That brings its year-to-date growth to 17%.
Schiphol’s volumes are up 10% year-to-date. The airport said the latest figures show the cargo community’s ability to adapt to changing market conditions.