This - Schiphol's first quarterly drop in figures for almost two years – is due to reductions in cargo to and from Asia and Europe. While January (-2.3%) and February (+2.1%) tonnages maintained the previous year's levels, March saw a decline of 4.7%, causing the deficit.
Asia saw a reduction in share to 36.49% of the total cargo, illustrating a year-on-date drop of 3%. North America maintained the second largest share at 18.9%, up 4.4% on the first quarter of 2014. The Middle East accounted for 13.82% (down 1.5%), Africa's share was 11.67% (up 0.7%) and Latin America came fifth with 11.17% share (up 1.9%). In sixth place Europe, including Russia, also saw a significant decline - to 7.95% of the total (or down by 16% quarter over quarter).
Enno Osinga, Senior VP of Cargo, commented: "The results are disappointing, but not unexpected, and not confined to Schiphol alone. China is our single largest market, and we are China's largest gateway into Europe; so the slowing of its economy and manufacturing output are inevitably very visible in our traffic figures… We hope for more stability and a return to gentle growth later this year, and meanwhile will continue undeterred on our path of process optimisation, to further strengthen our proposition. This will be the best insulator from wider market issues beyond our control."
