Air cargo volumes were down 2.6% in March at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
The Dutch airport’s traffic figures for last month show it handled 128,281 tonnes of cargo.
Schiphol’s cargo division said in a LinkedIn post on 16 April that the decline in volumes was “mainly due to ongoing geopolitical developments in the Middle East”.
The belly cargo to freighter split reached 41% / 59%, with full freighters gaining three percentage points compared to the same month last year.
Further, inbound/outbound volumes were split 53% / 47%. Schiphol noted that inbound volumes continued to show strong growth from the Far East, up 8%, Middle/South America, up 18% and Africa, up 15%. The Middle East showed a decrease of 47%.
On the outbound side, the Far East was up 10% and Africa grew 8%. Volumes to the US 4% down and volumes to the Middle East decreased 50%.
The top commodities in March included electrical machinery, flowers, fashion, fruit & vegetables, pharmaceuticals, fish and spare parts.
In addition to air cargo tonnages, Schiphol handled 42,132 tonnes of road feeder service cargo, accounting for nearly a quarter of total cargo volumes.
Figures from Airports Council International (ACI) Europe show that last year cargo volumes at Schiphol declined 4.2% to 1.43m tonnes.
