Freight traffic at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport slumped by 18.4 per cent in 2009 from a year ago to 1.28 million tonnes. The decline in Amsterdam’s cargo traffic has bottomed out with volumes forecast to grow 1-2 per cent in 2010, according to the CEO of the Schiphol Group, Jos Nijhuis.

The slump in 2009 traffic to the lowest level since 2000 exceeded Schiphol’s forecast of a 15 per cent decline largely as a result of deep capacity cuts at Air France-KLM, the airport’s main cargo carrier. Air France-KLM, which took over Amsterdam-based cargo and charter airline Martinair in early 2009, grounded 11 of its 29 freighters, including eight B747-400Fs as it seeks to maximise the use of belly capacity on its passenger and passenger/freight combi aircraft. In all the AF-KLM group cut its winter cargo capacity by 15 per cent.

Schiphol’s cargo volumes began recovering in the second half of 2009 with the year-on-year decline slowing to less than 10 per cent, with a small surge in the last quarter. London Heathrow overtook Amsterdam Schiphol as Europe’s third largest air cargo hub – behind Frankfurt and Paris Charles de Gaulle – handling 1.58 million tonnes in the first eleven months of 2009, down 10.6 per cent from 2008.