2014 was another solid year for Amsterdam Airport Schiphol‘s cargo traffic, beating 2013 by 6.7 per cent. The final quarter of the year was once again its strongest, maintaining the classic last-quarter-peak pattern which was the norm before the 2008 global recession. Total tonnage in October-December 2014 was 422,112 – an increase of 3 per cent on the same period in 2013.
Contributing to the strong showing, Europe was up 11.6 per cent, Latin America was up 7 per cent, Africa increased 4.8 per cent and North America grew 6.4 per cent. Asia fell by 1 per cent in the quarter, while the Middle East saw a 1.7 per cent reduction. Freighter movements grew to a total of 4304, up 3 per cent on 2013’s final three months.
For the year as a whole, tonnage was up 6.7 per cent to 1,633,195. North America showed the best growth, up 14 per cent over 2013. This was followed by Europe (up 12.5 per cent), Middle East (up 6.1 per cent), Asia (up 5.4 per cent) and Africa (up 4.1 per cent). Latin America meanwhile ended the year down 2 per cent. Freighter movements in 2014 totalled 16,568 – a growth of 6 per cent on 2013, with a peak in movements in October and November.
Schiphol’s traffic continued to be dominated by Asia (38.84 per cent, slightly down on 2013) and North America (17.8 per cent of the total, up on 2013). The Middle East accounted for 12.9 per cent, Latin America rose to 4th place with 10.27 per cent share, Africa fell to 5th place with 10.75 per cent, and Europe accounted for 9.45 per cent of total tonnage. Imports grew to 51.51 per cent of all traffic, up from 50.58 per cent in 2013.
Schiphol Cargo Snr. VP Enno Osinga comments: “An interesting development in the figures was that December was the only month of 2014 in which we experienced negative growth against 2013. This has two explanations: in 2014 there was a very large volume of Playstations and X-boxes that needed to reach the shops before Christmas, creating an early peak.
“Secondly, it is clear that the US west coast port problems have caused a shift of available freighter capacity from Asia-Europe to the Pacific to deal with ocean freight backlogs, resulting in December’s decline in growth from Asia. Given the continuing problems on the US west coast, it is realistic to also expect the start of 2015 to be slow. Despite this, we look forward to driving further innovation, and realising the benefits of projects already under way such as eLink and the Customs Joint Inspection Centre.”
