“We’ll continue to grow”
The way the airfreight sector has been treated by Amsterdam Airport Schiphol has caused some irritation of late. Bart Pouwels recently gave us the low-down on the hub’s long-term strategy. After ten years in the freight division he became head of cargo last year.
Mr Pouwels, how will the air cargo sector rise from its low in Amsterdam?
I wouldn’t describe the segment’s state as a problem. One fact is that, through to November 2020, the airport can operate 500,000 flight movements annually. After that, all the parties involved have to sit down again and negotiate a new agreement. We’ll have to see what will be possible for full-freighter flights. Such services don’t fit into Iata’s procedure, which automatically takes airlines that fulfil 80% of their services punctually into account when re-allocating slots. Firstly, freighter operations are volatile, and secondly freighters shuttle much less between two fixed points, which is the standard model in the passenger sector. So freighters frequently fly to schedule less than 50% of the time. I can understand that they feel penalised if Iata’s rules are applied strictly. And I lose 10% of my flights...
...and how much freight?
‘Only’ 2.5%. That’s because co-loaded volumes have risen by 6%. So there’s still room for growth.
To what extent is this situation unique to Amsterdam?
I guess other airports face the same constellation, as soon as they reach the limits of their existing capacities and apply Iata’s rules literally. Much depends on how important a hub considers full-freighters to be. In Amsterdam the ratio between belly-hold and main-deck volumes came to 50:50, and we had 27 full-freighter operators landing here, which is really a lot.
What solutions will maximise operations?
We’ve analysed it all. Increasing frequencies is simply impossible. Deploying larger full-freighters and making greater use of unused belly-hold capacities might pay off. On flights from North America to Amsterdam, and to Europe in general, just half of the available space is filled with cargo. As the development manager I’ve already discussed this with passenger airlines’ network planners over the past few years. In the meantime I’ve noticed that a new approach is making headway – the value of cargo is now recognised.
There are frequently also various different parties involved. How does Amsterdam take this fact into account?
Last year we merged the aviation marketing and freight divisions, which has enabled us to make the best of synergies, which in turn has especially benefited freight activities.
It sounds as if you’re satisfied with the results of the restructuring.
I actually even helped to push these measures. The airlines are pleased with our approach. This kind of change takes time to become accepted too, though. I’ve seen how an economic downturn can benefit the search for new formats, if it continues for long enough.
If we look at the expected long-term developments, for example in the field of e-commerce activities, then we can see that we’ve also focused especially on improving overall operational processes. We’ll continue to grow after 2020 too, I’m convinced of that.