Joost van Doesburg to step down as cargo head at Schiphol

Joost van Doesburg

Head of cargo at Royal Schiphol Group Joost van Doesburg will step down on 1 February, after having been responsible for the Dutch airport’s cargo operations since March 2023. 

He succeeded Anne Marie van Hemert, who had been head of cargo for 14 years, at a turbulent time for Schiphol Airport.  

The Loadstar reported in January 2023 that insiders at Schiphol were urging Mr van Doesburg to urgently fix the loss-making and broken port community system developed by Cargonaut and acquired by Schiphol two years earlier – “a big, big mess and a financial disaster”, said a source close to the airport at the time.  

And the group thanked Mr van Doesburg for the “impressive results” he achieved with his teams during his tenure. It said: “Under his leadership, the cargo port community system, Cargonaut, was completely overhauled. 

“Cargo volumes increased again, and a process was initiated to reposition cargo within the Schiphol organisation, with a strong focus on sustainability and quality.” 

Mr van Doesburg’s tenure also faced difficulty from the Dutch parliament’s plan to cut noise pollution at Schiphol by cutting aircraft slots – with much contention surrounding where the slot reductions would be made, and Mr van Doesburg at the heart of the decision making.  

The Dutch cargo community had been up in arms over the apparent refusal of the airport authority to work with it to ensure cargo retained capacity.  

Flowers, as a high-volume but low-yield commodity, were reportedly in Schiphol’s firing line, which caused quite a stir with shippers that relied on the airport’s excellent connectivity to transport their product.  

Patricia Vitalis, executive director of Schiphol operations, noted that “business-related criticism of Schiphol” had “been made personal”, resulting in “unjust defamatory allegations” and subsequent media coverage. 

“This has created an undesirable situation for Joost, which we deeply regret,” said Ms Vitalis. “The Schiphol executive team has always supported Joost. He is a dedicated professional who has consistently advocated for the interests of cargo at Schiphol.

“We respect his decision [to stand down], but deeply regret it, both for him and for Schiphol,” she added.  

Although Mr van Doesburg’s path after Schiphol has not been announced, he said on LinkedIn he was going “on to a great new challenge”. 

Previously, he worked both for the European Shippers Council and evofenedex, latterly he was a union leader at Schiphol.