Joost van Doesburg decided to step down from his post as cargo boss and exit Schiphol Airport when a smear campaign started to take a toll on his well-being. His departure will have no impact on the policy of the local cargo community, says Maarten van As, Managing Director of Air Cargo Netherlands (ACN). According to informed sources, Eric Dietz, the former head of the French parcel delivery service, Geopost, is being considered as van Doesburg’s successor.
The vehicle for the above-mentioned campaign was the populist and right-leaning newspaper, ‘De Telegraaf’, which quoted ‘anonymous sources’ in JUL24, stating that van Doesburg was responsible for a culture of fear and harassment at AMS Airport.
According to the left-leaning daily, ‘De Volkskrant’, the issue is about a collaborator who had been found guilty of fraud, following an integrity investigation initiated by Mr. van Doesburg. In this procedure, he had the backing of the group’s top management.
Letter of support
This was proved by the fact that, on the morning of the publication of the article, Schiphol’s new CEO, Pieter van Oord, sent a letter to the cargo community, in which he deplored the ‘unjustified and defamatory accusations’ against Joost van Doesburg and the cargo department.
“These issues have been investigated and dealt with internally,” the executive wrote. “Since he took office at Schiphol, Joost has spoken out on non-ethical behavior, and he has committed himself justly to look into this matter. All signals and notifications have been investigated by Schiphol’s integrity commission, inclusive of the allegations against Joost. The result of this investigation is that there is no cause to doubt Joost’s integrity.”
Further to this, he stated: “Cargo is an important and integral part of Schiphol and will remain so. We enjoy the dialogue with the cargo community. For questions and concertation on air cargo, our door is always open, so that we can collaborate on a good future for cargo at our airport.”
From critic to policy maker
Joost van Doesburg joined Schiphol Group in MAR23. His previous job was as an adviser at the trade union, FNV, in which he was often critical of the labor conditions at Schiphol Airport. So, in certain circles, his career switch to the airport group was seen as a ‘gamekeeper turns poacher’ operation.
Part of Mr. van Doesburg’s job was to align the cargo business with the far-going measures to reduce noise pollution, a scheme expected to be unfavorable to the cargo operation.
A successor for Mr. Van Doesburg has not been appointed yet. A name mentioned through the grapevine is Eric Dietz, who was COO Europe and EVP of Geopost.
Dialogue goes on
Air Cargo Netherlands (ACN) pursues the dialogue with the airport, says the umbrella’s Managing Director, Maarten van As. “We maintain our commitment for sufficient space for cargo at Schiphol, as well as an ideal digital infrastructure to optimally support the cargo processes and to be a strong cargo hub. In this respect, good and constructive discussions are on-going with the Schiphol management and the cargo department.”
Air Belgium goes ‘cargo only’
On Thursday 12DEC24, the Corporate Court of Nivelles accepted the conditions put forward by the consortium willing to take over Air Belgium. It is made up of the holding, PESO Aviation Management, owned by former Martinair boss, Peter Scholten, and British Air One Holding International, owned by Indian businessman, Guneet Mirchandani. The consortium will be paying €800,000 for Air Belgium – purely for its cargo activity. This means that only 147 staff will be kept, while the other 204 will be made redundant.
The take-over still requires approval from the Belgian Directorate-General for Aviation, a procedure that can take up to 4 months. According to rumors, the new owners are planning to add another aircraft to Air Belgium’s current cargo fleet of two Airbus A330-200 and two B747.
