CCO of the Schiphol Group introduces the future of Schiphol

Last April 1st I was promoted to my new role from Head of Schiphol Real Estate, and as a Member of the Board, I am also responsible for the cargo activities of Schiphol Group as headed up by Jonas van Stekelenburg.

Although I dealt with a lot of handling companies, airlines, and forwarders whilst in the Real Estate division, I have learned so much more about the air cargo supply chain in the past eleven months! It is so impressive to see the speed and efficiency of, for example, shipments of salmon being trucked from Norway, and transferred to the next flight from Schiphol to Japan. A highlight was the opportunity to experience the cargo process as 'passenger' of a full freighter!

I have learned that cargo activities at Schiphol serve almost all of Europe by road, and by air, almost the whole world. Every time I hear the cargo operations at Schiphol being credited as amongst the best in Europe, I feel proud to be part of this community effort!

Let me also take this opportunity to update you on our 2016 results. Last year, we celebrated our 100th anniversary and became Royal Schiphol Group. The distinction is an honour and a great privilege. It was the 'icing on the cake' for what was a successful year, reflected in our year-end figures. Cargo volumes grew by 2.5% to 1.7 million tonnes; passenger numbers rapidly grew by 9% to 63.6 million passengers, and flight movements – both cargo and passenger flights – increased by 6% to 480,000. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is currently connected to 322 cities around the globe. We could never have achieved these numbers without the support of our airlines, our handlers, our forwarders, Dutch Customs and our entire community.

Now is the opportunity to look forward together to the year ahead, as there will be some important developments in 2017. It's positive news that in April, our airport charges will go down for the third consecutive year by 7,9% (on average), and the Schiphol Cargo team will continue to improve cargo processes at Amsterdam Airport together with all air freight companies involved. Our focus for 2017 is on efficiency enhancements through the Smart Cargo Mainport Programme, and on vertical initiatives with our Pharma Gateway Amsterdam members, Holland Flower Alliance partners, and our whole e-Commerce community. Last but not least we will push for electronic data sharing for all parties in the supply chain.

There are also challenges ahead which together we need to be prepared for. Due to 2016's growth, we are expecting to soon reach our capacity limitations, set by the Government at 500,000 aircraft movements per year until 2020. Due to this, it won’t be so easy as in previous years to apply for extra slots, or slots in certain time frames, once the IATA season has already started. Furthermore we will experience some constraints of (temporary) parking places for wide body (cargo) aircraft. We will invest heavily in solutions during the next few years to overcome situations of scarcity, and I fully trust the Schiphol community to cooperate closely in this.

Our goal is to be Europe's Preferred Airport and as such we will continue to do our utmost to make your business as successful as possible in 2017. We trust that we can count on your support this year, and in the years to come!

André van den Berg