Amsterdam Airport Schiphol’s outbound traffic to Africa was down 17.67 percent to 42,669 tonnes and inbound declined 21 percent to 76,057 tonnes. Flower imports from Africa showed a dip in the first half of the year, but stabilised later in the year.
The total cargo volume for 2020 declined by 8 percent to 1.44 million tonnes compared to 2019.
Last year freight volumes were shipped in three categories of flights; full freighters, which accounted for 61 percent of total volume, pax-cargo-only, which includes passenger flights with only freight on board at 10 percent, and passenger flights at 29 percent.
Inbound cargo volumes declined by 4.7 percent to 754,361 tonnes in 2020 compared to 2019, and outbound cargo volumes decreased 11.7 percent to 687,161 tonnes during the same period. The three biggest destinations for cargo tonnage were Shanghai (China), Doha (Qatar), and Chicago (US).
“The 2020 figures are in line with our expectations given the challenging year we all had to face,” said Patricia Vitalis, incoming director airport operations and aviation partnerships.
“I am proud of our cargo community and our team at Schiphol, who have worked hard to continue supporting our customers through the pandemic in a constantly changing business landscape and for providing new routes for new cargo airlines to transport essential PPE consignments.
“The cargo community at Schiphol has focused on collaboration to find solutions including the launch of Vaccines Gateway Netherlands, which is a task force of more than 60 companies providing the swift, secure, and safe transportation of the Covid-19 vaccines.
“We will continue to work together to ensure that supply chains keep moving.”