The airlines represented within the Amsterdam Coordination Committee Netherlands (CCN) will not meet to discuss a second proposal on a local rule for cargo flights at AMS before 14. December.
The CCN, made up of carriers flying to AMS, is a body which advises the slot coordinator on slot allocations. Since the start of the winter season freighter operators have had to reduce their
frequencies due to scarcity in this respect. According to Amsterdam’s Cargo Director Jonas van Stekelenburg this has led to a decrease of 12.4% in full freighter movements over the first two
weeks of November.
“Handlers see a shift to other full freighters and to belly capacity. It is not clear how big the shift is yet. Handlers also still build/breakdown airfreight for freighters which have moved to
other airports,” Jonas has tweeted. Initially a drop of 20% of freighter movements had been forecast due to this problem. “We will know more at the end of the month,” Jonas says.
KLM can tip the balance
The umbrella organization Air Cargo Netherlands has taken the lead in convincing the government to introduce a local rule at AMS, that would allocate unused slots preferably to the freighter
operators. A first proposal was put to the vote by CCN last October. It failed due to home carrier KLM’s abstention.
At the request of the former responsible Secretary of State, Schiphol has drafted a new proposal, which will be put to the vote on 14 December. According to the Dutch trade paper Nieuwsblad
Transport, KLM could tip the balance in favour of the freighter operators. In total, some 600 additional slots could possibly be allocated to freighter operators.
Marcel Schoeters in Brussels
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