The final quarter of the year was once again its strongest, maintaining the classic last-quarter-peak pattern which was the norm before the 2008 global recession. Total tonnage in October-December 2014 was 422,112 – an increase of 3% on the same period in 2013. Contributing to the strong showing, Europe was up 11.6%, Latin America was up 7%, Africa increased 4.8% and North America grew 6.4%. Asia fell by 1% in the quarter, while the Middle East saw a 1.7% reduction. Freighter movements grew to a total of 4304, up 3% on 2013’s final three months. For the year as a whole, tonnage was up 6.7% to 1,633,195. North America showed the best growth, up 14% over 2013. This was followed by Europe (up 12.5%), Middle East (up 6.1%), Asia (up 5.4%) and Africa (up 4.1%). Latin America meanwhile ended the year down 2%. Freighter movements in 2014 totalled 16,568 – a growth of 6% on 2013, with a peak in movements in October and November. Schiphol’s traffic continued to be dominated by Asia (38.84%, slightly down on 2013) and North America (17.8% of the total, up on 2013). The Middle East accounted for 12.9%, Latin America rose to 4th place with 10.27% share, Africa fell to 5th place with 10.75%, and Europe accounted for 9.45% of total tonnage. Imports grew to 51.51% of all traffic, up from 50.58% in 2013. Schiphol Cargo Snr. VP Enno Osinga comments: “An interesting development in the figures was that December was the only month of 2014 in which we experienced negative growth against 2013. This has two explanations: in 2014 there was a very large volume of Playstations and X-boxes that needed to reach the shops before Christmas, creating an early peak. “Secondly, it is clear that the US west coast port problems have caused a shift of available freighter capacity from Asia-Europe to the Pacific to deal with ocean freight backlogs, resulting in December’s decline in growth from Asia. Given the continuing problems on the US west coast, it is realistic to also expect the start of 2015 to be slow. “Despite this, we look forward to driving further innovation throughout 2014, and realising the benefits of projects already under way such as eLink and the Customs Joint Inspection Centre.”