New developments for team Ritra Schiphol

27 February 2023

Over the last six months, a lot has happened in Oude Meer – where Ritra’s air cargo team are based. For one, Team Air now has three new faces and the interior has recently been given a new and vibrant look! In addition, Air Cargo Manager Rob van de Werve is going to give you a glimpse of his team’s daily activities, and he explains the latest developments around Schiphol.

Old and new faces

Mention Ritra Air and Rob, John, and Mike spring to mind. Together with Jessey, who joined in 2018, they have been sending your shipments sky-high as quickly as possible for many years. The team has been expanded with three new faces over the last few months: Jordi, Karina and Karsten. Let’s introduce them!

From left to right Rob, Jessey, Karina, Jordi, John and Karsten (Mike is missing because he was working from home)

Karina – Export air cargo forwarder

Karina Schneider joined Export in September 2022. This sporty busy bee is the only lady among gents at Oude Meer and is also doing an internship as a personal trainer. Together with her colleagues John, Jessey and Karsten, she looks after correct and fast processing of your export air cargo consignment.

Jordi – Business Development

The team welcomed Jordi Schoonenberg in January. Jordi is certainly no stranger to aviation. This football-playing father of a 5-year-old son has worked in air cargo forwarding for years. First in operations, and in the commercial sphere for the last 10 years.

He can also be found at our premises on the Albert Plesmanweg in Rotterdam once a week. Every Tuesday, he leaves Nieuw-Vennep early in the morning to catch up and meet with the rest of the (Sales) team. Jordi is settling in great at Ritra and as such, has a clear notion of our organisation: “I feel good about the open atmosphere, my colleagues’ positive attitude, and the passion for logistics we all share as like-minded people. Ritra’s strength is undoubtedly working together as an organisation to get things done.”  

Karsten – Intern

Ritra’s John Bouwmeester has been a familiar face since 2005 and he is a great fan of improvement and digitisation. As such, he and ICT specialist Theo have taken a very close look at all manner of processes over the last few months, with the aim of (further) digitisation. He is keen to transfer his knowledge and specialism to the younger colleagues. John currently has intern Karsten Korzilius under his wings. This enthusiastic 18-year-old from Nieuwekerk a/d Ijssel has joined us for an internship from January to June. He hopes to further expand on the knowledge he gained from his STC Air Cargo Specialist’ course while he is at Ritra.

A new look for Schiphol Office

Just like the interior of the premises in Rotterdam, the entire floor at the Fokkerweg has now been updated in fresh white tones, light oak, and beautiful plants. Nothing has changed about the amazing view though! The beautiful vista across the Schiphol Airport runway always adds that little extra.

Rob brings you up to date

The endless queues for customs checks. Strikes by air traffic controllers, pilots and a huge staff shortage at airlines’ cargo handling and distribution centres. Last year was certainly not boring for Ritra’s air cargo team. We asked Air Cargo Manager Rob van de Werve, who has worked at the Fokkerweg for more than 15 years, for his view on the current situation.

Rob: “You can see it coming, the situation after Chinese New Year, but you can never rule it out. We seem to be spared the extremes of previous years. The constant flow, relatively few peaks; the Chinese celebrations seems to have had little grip on aviation. There is still lots of stock at customers’ premises and the warehouses are full. We are really dealing with a tentatively cautious market.”

Luckily, Team Ritra is not twiddling their thumbs. Rob: “Thanks to our strong collaboration with agents and a great diversity of clients, we are left with a very varied range of work. For example, as well as fashion and hazardous goods, we also laboratory test equipment, aerospace fluids, and conditioned transport on dry ice.” These are all complex transports with many different regulations and the necessary specific documentation, including a lot of electronic messaging.

Team Ritra Air is the ‘Control Tower’ for all your import and export consignments at Schiphol Airport. On top of Ritra’s own online platform TRACOS and the introduction of customs systems ICS2 and  DMS, expected this year, they are looking forward to new developments. Rob: “Aviation is constantly on the move and the developments in automation should create more transparency in future, both for import and export.”

Air cargo: is it for you?

Are you curious whether air cargo might be interesting for your company? Get in touch with our colleagues for personal contact, go to the website or ask our new Business Developer Jordi over for a cup of coffee (black, no sugar).