BENELUX\\\


Enno Osinga has that rarest of commodities among European airports – space. The cargo senior vice president has to think quite carefully when enumerating all the usable areas in and around Schiphol: “There’s the South-east area, still empty at the moment and there’s Schiphol Logistics Park, where we have started the first building but which still has plenty of area remaining – and there’s also an area we call A4 Zone West, which is the longest-term development.” This is all in addition to the existing


zones of cargo activity, namely the KLM Cargo area and the Avia Partner facility, though in the case of the former there are plans to move the operation to the South-east in about


that won’t be found at any European gateway: “We have also opened up airside operations to some forwarders (those in the new logistics area) which allows them to build and deliver their own pallets direct to the ground handler. At the moment, we have Rhenus, Panalpina and Ceva doing this, but there is room for more.” Also in the planning for this


year is a complete new truck park. “Truck parking is a hot issue from a security point of view but also from an organisational viewpoint. And although the Netherlands’ record in security is pretty good, petty crime is escalating into organised crime. And at the same time we’d rather have trucks parked there rather than on the roads.”


at Frankfurt. It would also reduce the very large number of airline trucks that currently operate to and from the airport – around 100 on Friday nights to both the UK and Italy - and might potentially offer quicker journey times than is possible by road for express freight and perishables such as flowers. The rail terminal could open in about 2015 or 2016. “Now it’s a matter of building a business case,” says Osinga. As stated, Schiphol does have a


strategy to reduce its number of night flights but it would like to keep a few for flexibility, for example to handle urgent flower traffic. Schiphol, Enno Osinga says, has been “aggressively managing noise” (if


that isn’t a contradiction in terms) “so we’re


“ I don’t market Schiphol to airlines – I am looking at the whole of the logistics chain.”


being the latest addition. Existing carriers have also increased their operations, for example Airbridge Carriers and Lan Chile, both of whom have “grown massively”. Schiphol has tended to do especially well in the full- freighter market. Enno Osinga is happy to share the


secret of his success. “I don’t market Schiphol to airlines – I am looking at the whole of the logistics chain.” By creating a marketplace, by ensuring that there is a good, balanced flow of freight, he finds that companies naturally seek to come to Schiphol because it makes such good business sense. “Once I’ve attracted the DCs and forwarders, that’s when I start talking to airlines – not before.” Schiphol’s success in attracting


carriers has not been on the back of deep discounting. Osinga says that any carrier being offered such an incentive by an airport needs to ask themselves “what percentage of the total supply chain cost are airport charges and what is the return traffic on offer.” Gaining a single return pallet can more than outweigh any likely saving on landing fees. Schiphol, unashamedly, is “totally focussed on the top end of the market.” By assiduously developing its


2013 or 2014. Schiphol is one of the oldest


airports in the world and, despite being close to one of the main cities it serves – Amsterdam – it still has plenty of room in which to grow. As well as its phenomenal six runways – which among other things, help improve all-weather reliability and spreads the noise burden - “there’s loads of space here,” Osinga continues. “We’ve got a massive area in which to grow and, in fact, we’ve got so much that we’ve even opening a golf course this year in part of our area. And we will have plenty of land into the future, especially for logistics.” Space is only one unique aspect


of the main Netherlands gateway, says Osinga. “We’re also unusual in that we have a very open handling market here. It’s a policy we started some years ago and we now have eight handling companies competing for business.” Admittedly, the policy isn’t necessarily popular with the handling companies themselves, but it does make for some very keen prices to customers. And yet again, something else


Airports tend to plan for much


longer time scales than the airfreight and express industry in which Enno Osinga cut his teeth. One rather more future-looking scheme is the express rail terminal. Schiphol airport took place in the recent Carex train demonstration that saw a high- speed freight train operate from the continent to London and, as far as Schiphol is concerned, the idea will be to create an express rail freight hub with its own dedicated sidings off the high speed route to Brussels and the south that fortuitously passes right by the airport. There will also be dedicated road access between the airport and the rail terminal, so freight can be delivered direct to the train, just as if it was a plane. The aim is, partly, to reduce the


number of night flights at Schiphol which, paradoxically, is the best way of ensuring that Schiphol continues to enjoy the ability to fly planes at night when it really needs to. If there are too many night


flights, it will


only stimulate opposition among residents and eventually lead to a complete blanket ban, as happened


not forced into having a complete ban.” There are “hugely increased landing fees” for the more marginally compliant aircraft like the 747-200 and “massive incentives” for the newer, quieter types like the 747-8. The policy did mean that some carriers decamped to other airports – for example, El Al to Liege - “which was a big short-term revenue loss but in the overall scheme of things it’s an investment for the future.” Noise levels at the airport are in fact only 60% of the level five years ago and although it is a constant topic of conversation with residents and others, the problem is well under control, Osinga insists. The list of Amsterdam successes,


both in terms of carriers attracted and major forwarders seeking to locate their operations there, continues to grow. IJS is one recent newcomer and AP Moller’s forwarder, Damco has just said that it plans to set up its main European HQ in Amsterdam. In terms of carriers, Schiphol has


been doing as well as or better than comparable European gateways, with Thai Airways’ new freighter


market, Schiphol has eradicated many of the cargo imbalances that traditionally plague most European gateways. For instance, the ratio of imports from China to exports back there has been transformed from around 80:20 to 55:45. The very fact that there is profitable two-way cargo on offer at Schiphol is worth any number of elaborate marketing presentations. The highly competitive handling


market is another factor. “Our fees are lower than for any other major airport – and yet all the handling companies want to be here,” Osinga asserts.


Issue 4 2012


Enno Osinga – the European airfreight industry’s ‘space man’


Another important factor, he


believes, is simply the fact that Schiphol still has senior management responsible for cargo marketing. “Try going to most of the major European airport authorities and ask to speak to the senior guy in charge of cargo.” There may well not be one. In many other airports the role simply does not exist or it may be a subsidiary of something like the estates department. “In fact, I really hate the term airport authority,” Osinga adds. It smacks of bureaucrats telling people what to do, not burgeoning free markets. “Here, we’re building a business. For instance, when times were tough here, we sat down with our handlers and we actually took certain buildings back temporarily, to reduce the cost burden on them.” Tellingly, while Schiphol can point


to the fact that 15% of the airport’s total revenue derives from cargo, many other gateways simply don’t have that information. In tonnage terms, Schiphol is


Europe’s third cargo gateway, just ahead of Heathrow at the moment. There is quite a gap between Schiphol and Frankfurt in the number two slot (around 1.5m versus 2.5m tonnes a year) and Enno Osinga doesn’t see that being closed in the foreseeable future, despite the Germany gateway’s well-publicised problems with night bans. Another statistic that Osinga has to


hand is the fact that cargo at Schiphol creates around 27,000 jobs, directly and indirectly. He has done a lot of work to convince the airport and the wider community that air cargo, far from being “dirty and smelly” is a vital part of business and without which nobody in Europe would have an iPad, or fresh flowers in winter, for instance. Schiphol and the Netherlands


19


Enno Osigna


freight industry has also been in the forefront of systems development for cargo. Cargonaut, which handles all the interaction between the business community


and government


agencies, was initiated by the airport and is now being developed into a neutral, multimodal platform that allows activities like tracking to be handled on a single system, regardless of whether its is road, air or sea. “The beauty of that is, if you know what your stock situation is, you can then decide which mode of transport to use – air if it’s urgent, sea if it’s not.” The Netherlands customs service


is now, along with Belgium’s probably the one most dedicated to business facilitation. Moreover, the government has repeatedly recognised logistics as one of its ten priority sectors. “What’s also important is that I can also approach people like the mayor of Amsterdam if I have an issue and we will do whatever he can to help us.” To round off the list of benefits


on offer at Schiphol are some of the slightly tangible ones. There’s also the Netherlands famously business- friendly climate, the multilingual population and even “the fact that people here grow up logistics – we know what it’s all about.”


Schiphol welcomes back Thai Cargo


Amsterdam Airport Schiphol has welcomed the inaugural flight of Thai Cargo’s new weekly B747 freighter


services. The aircraft -


delivered in early May - was escorted to the ramp by a fleet of airport authority ramp vehicles, where it enjoyed the traditional water arch salute by Schiphol’s Fire Brigade.


The new Thai Cargo freighter


service operates Bangkok-Madras- Amsterdam-Bangkok, and marks the return of Thai Cargo to Schiphol aſter an absence of around 18 months. Aviapartner is providing ground and ramp handling services. Thai Cargo regional manager


for sales and operations, Norbert Rockenmeyer, said: “Now we are able to offer the Dutch cargo community a combined transport capacity of around 200 tonnes per week.”


service


Thai Cargo’s new freighter brings


weekly total freighter flights to 300. Amsterdam’s


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