Lessons learnt from the market for air freight ground handling at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

•A new EC Regulation on ground handling will further liberalise the European ground handling market.•Amsterdam Airport Schiphol has had a fully liberalised regime for ground handling services for a very long time.•We address the lessons that can be learnt from the Amsterdam experience regarding air cargo ground handling.•We find that an open handling market brings choice for airlines and low handling fees.•We do not find strong indications of market failure that would justify intervention by the market regulator.

On 16 April 2013, the European Parliament adopted a new, amended airport ground handling Regulation, which will replace the old Directive 96/67 EC on ground handling services. The new Regulation will further open up European airports for competition on the ground handling market. Even long before the introduction of Directive 96/67/EC, Amsterdam Airport has had a liberalised handling regime. Against the background of the further liberalisation of the European ground handling market, this paper investigates the characteristics of the open ground handling market for air cargo at Amsterdam Airport and the lessons that can be learnt from the Amsterdam experience. We find that an open handling market brings greater freedom of choice for airlines and lower handling fees. However, we do not see any (serious) market failure for the airport that would justify intervention by the market regulator, by limiting the number of handlers for example.