IN Brief:
- ACN has opened the Air Cargo Innovation Lab in Amsterdam as a new experimentation layer alongside its Smart Cargo Mainport Program at Schiphol.
- The lab links the Dutch air cargo sector with Startup Village at Amsterdam Science Park, bringing cargo operators closer to startups and technical talent.
- The move follows a year in which Schiphol handled 1.49 million tonnes of cargo, raising pressure to improve digital planning, data exchange, and operational flow.
Air Cargo Netherlands (ACN) has launched the Air Cargo Innovation Lab in Amsterdam, adding a dedicated test environment for new cargo technologies to the longer-running digitalisation work already under way at Schiphol.
The new lab is being developed with Startup Village at Amsterdam Science Park and is intended to give the Dutch air cargo sector a more structured route for trying, refining, and scaling digital tools. That gives ACN more than a venue for demonstrations. It gives the association a place where ideas can be tested before they are pushed into live operating practice across the cargo chain.
Maarten van As, managing director of ACN, said the sector was entering “a period of profound change” and argued that faster experimentation would be necessary if the Netherlands is to strengthen its position as a logistics hub. The comment lands against a background of recovering cargo volumes, tighter operational requirements, and a steady accumulation of digital projects around truck handling, cargo visibility, and data exchange at Schiphol.
Those efforts are not starting from scratch. ACN is already closely tied to the Smart Cargo Mainport Program, the Schiphol cargo community initiative that brings together handlers, airlines, forwarders, carriers, and other supply chain partners to improve and digitise airport cargo processes. Over the past few years that programme has focused on making flows more predictable, cutting waiting times, improving landside planning, and widening secure data sharing between participants.
The lab changes the operating model by separating experimentation from rollout. Fabian Haijenga, programme manager for the Smart Cargo Mainport Program, said the idea is to test new concepts quickly inside the Air Cargo Innovation Lab and then scale successful results through SCMP. For cargo operators, that is a more useful distinction than it might sound, because too many digital projects still stall after the pilot stage, long before they affect truck turn times, warehouse processing, or exception management.
The timing is significant. Schiphol handled 1.49 million tonnes of cargo in 2024, up 8.2% year on year, with belly freight growing sharply as passenger capacity returned. Rising volume does not make every digital proposal worthwhile, but it does increase the cost of friction at handler gates, planning desks, customs interfaces, and cargo hand-off points.
Startup Village also gives ACN access to a wider innovation environment than the airport estate alone can provide. The Amsterdam Science Park hub describes itself as focused on AI and quantum, with science, startups, and business brought together in one location. ACN has not yet published a detailed project pipeline for the lab, but the structure suggests a more deliberate attempt to move cargo digitisation from scattered trials into repeatable deployment across the Schiphol community.
