That forecast was based, among other things, on a remarkably strong freight result in September of this year, when the six freight handlers at the airport processed 10% more freight with a 7.7% increase in the number of freight flights to 1,391 flight movements.

Internationally, freight transport at the Dutch airport also lags behind the competition. For example, market leader Hong Kong Airport processed almost 13% more cargo (442,000 tons) in October this year.

Fewer cargo flights

In October, the airport also recorded a slight increase in the number of cargo flights (+2.4%) compared to the same month in 2023, but compared to September of this year (+7.7%), there is a trend again down. Over the first ten months of this year, the number of cargo flights at Schiphol remained negative. In total, the airport handled 13,115 cargo flights during that period, a decrease of almost 8% compared to last year. Of the total of 400,000 flight movements at Schiphol over the first ten months, the share of cargo flights is 3.3%. That is below the historical share of 3.5%.

Schiphol's transport figures for the month of October also show that the total freight volume at Schiphol has increased by 10% to 1.25 million tonnes with two months to go. This makes it almost certain that the main port will end this year with a freight volume of around 1.5 million tons. That is about 200,000 tons below the freight record of 1.75 million tons from 2017.

Source: NT