Amsterdam Schiphol reported cargo growth of just 0.8% during 2011, as traffic to the gateway's largest market in the Far East dropped by more than 10% over the course of the year.

Total cargo processed through Schiphol in 2011 was just over 1.5 million tonnes - an increase of only 0.8% on 2010.

Although the airport showed cargo growth during five months of 2011, it also saw declines of up to 7.2% in the other seven months.

Overall figures for five of the six world regions were positive, with growth ranging from +3% in Central and South America to 33% in Europe compared with 2010.

However, it was the Far East market which did the most damage to Schiphol's results last year recording just 286,769 tonnes of exports (-7,3%) and 322,843 tonnes of imports (-12,9%) - making a total of 609,613 tonnes (-10,4%).

Enno Osinga, senior vice president of Schiphol Cargo, said: "2011 began promisingly, but very soon revealed itself as a challenging year for the industry.

"We take some comfort from the fact that we have still managed to show growth over 2010, and that ours was the only positive result among Europe's top 3 cargo gateways.

"But it's clear that inbound traffic from the Far East is soft, and likely to remain so for a while.

"As the Far East is our largest market and accounts for some 40% of our total tonnages, even modest falls in its traffic are difficult to offset with growth in other markets."