Despite continuing shortfalls in its top two markets of Asia and North America during the first three months of 2012, gains in other markets have seen Amsterdam Airport Schiphol’s total cargo throughput hold up, to end three per cent below 2011 figures at 358,220 tonnes.

Asian traffic at Europe’s third largest cargo airport for January-March 2012 was down 15 per cent on 2011 at 129,974 tonnes and although the region continued to dominate Schiphol’s traffic, its share of the total fell from 40 per cent throughout 2011 to 36.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2012. Meanwhile North American traffic, down three per cent to 66,045 tonnes, took second place with 18.4 per cent of the total.

But cargo tonnages between Schiphol and the European, Middle East and Latin American markets all showed healthy growth in the first three months of 2012, largely offsetting the weak performance
elsewhere. European imports and exports rose 53 per cent to 29,223 tonnes; meanwhile Middle East cargo totalled 43,973 tonnes (up 5.1 per cent) and Latin American tonnages increased six per cent to 44,139 tonnes.

Freighter aircraft movements through the airport from January to March grew to 3,765, up two per cent on 2011. This was despite the cessation of Jade and other carriers’ freighter services in
December and January.

“Weakness in Asian traffic, which is our largest market, continues to impact overall tonnages through Schiphol,” commented Schiphol Cargo senior VP Enno Osinga. “However, we have made good gains on other routes, and this growth has largely offset the 15 per cent decline in Asian business, resulting in a more respectable three per cent dip in total tonnage.

“Our aim for 2012 is to spread our business base more evenly, so that falls in individual markets have less impact. We are also examining ways of encouraging increased export business in collaboration with our cargo community.”

He concluded: “Despite a poor start to 2012 with traffic down 11 per cent in January, we have now made up most of the lost ground, and beaten our strong 2010 results by a small margin.

But, with continuing market unrest in Europe and the US still impacting global air cargo flows, we are expecting the year to continue as it has started, with throughput slightly down on 2011.”