Amsterdam Airport Schiphol has reported that cargo volumes for 2019 have decreased by nine per cent to 1.57 million tonnes with inbound and outbound tonnage both declining compared to 2018. The decline in tonnage has been linked to full freighter slot challenges and a weakening global air cargo market impacting results.

The year-end results revealed that inbound cargo volumes declined 9.8 percent to 791,613 tonnes and outbound cargo volumes decreased 7.2 per cent to 778,648 tonnes.

The three largest destinations for cargo tonnage were Shanghai, Moscow and Nairobi.

“The figures in 2019 were in line with our expectations as we continue to face full freighter slot challenges, on top of a weakening of the global air cargo market,” said director of aviation marketing, cargo and customer experience at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Maaike van der Windt.

“Operating in a slot constrained environment is challenging and it is having an impact on our results.”

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is seeking a resolution with the government of the Netherlands to better maintain full freighter flights.

“Our main priority is to maintain full freighters and we are looking into a more structural solution as full freighter flights are critical for our intercontinental destinations,” said van der Windt.

As part of the new cargo approach in 2020, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol will also increase the focus on sustainability to ensure the future of cargo. A key strand of this is to further expand collaboration in the cargo community to develop even smarter and greener freight operations.

“We continue to focus on working together as a community and are focusing on data and digitalisation in order to be ready for the years to come in which our ambition is to be a high-quality and sustainable airport,” said van der Windt.