Schiphol: cargo keeps flowing during the Covid-19 outbreak

Schiphol Cargo

European airports are stepping up to the crisis. While Liege, faced with serious congestion, has set up a ‘pop-up’ handing facility, Schiphol has now outlined how it is working – and, as you’d expect, it’s all about the community effort.

It is now seeing 360 cargo flights a week, up 100 since before the crisis. Noting that “close cooperation is very important now,” the airport said that its “main focus is making sure that the current skeleton network is maintained and freight demand accommodated, especially medical supplies and the airport is in contact with customers on a daily basis to ensure this”.

It is also, as expected, seeing very different cargo flows. Its flower business, for example, has been swapped for medical supplies.

“The general trend at Schiphol during the Covid-19 outbreak is that there is a lot of imports, but exports are lagging behind.

“Schiphol is seeing different cargo trends during the Covid-19 outbreak and is processing large amounts of imports from China and the US, which is proving costly for operators as there is an imbalance.”

Meanwhile Dutch Customs have set up “an extensive back office” to handle all Covid-19 related questions quickly.

Interesting.