Imports to Schiphol from the Far East in 2017 increased by 3.1% to 299,386 tonnes, with exports to the region growing by 8.8% year-on-year to 316,097 tonnes.
European exports, meanwhile, grew 19.1% to 123,950 tonnes in 2017, with imports up 18.2% to 124,992 tonnes.
“The upswing in e-commerce shipments, both inbound and outbound, was a large contributor to the cargo volumes for this market,” said Jonas van Stekelenburg, Head of Cargo, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. “A number of flights transit Europe en route to Asia, and we can attribute a proportion of the growth in our European figures to the developing Asian market.”
Latin America inbound cargo was up by 21.5% in 2017 to 123,524 tonnes, with outbound cargo growing by 1.8% to 76,498 tonnes.
Import volumes from Africa decreased by 6.6% to 109,751 tonnes owing to temporary aeronautical restrictions that have been in place since June 2017, while exports were down 5.4% compared to 2016.
Imports from the Middle East increased by 3.4% to 97,789 tonnes in 2017, with export tonnage increasing by 2.1% year-on-year to 122,617 tonnes.
Imports from North America were down by 5.6% to 141,714 tonnes year-on-year, however, reflecting changes in regional strategy by some airline partners, whilst North America export volumes were up by 4.4% to 164,509 tonnes.