Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) saw a monthly record high for cargo traffic in November, during which the cargo throughput rose 9.3 percent over the same period last year to 374,000 tonnes, Airport Authority Hong Kong announced Sunday.
Passenger traffic and flight movements also saw year-on-year growth of 5.5 percent and 6.6 percent respectively, with 4.6 million passengers and 29,710 flight movements handled, the authority said.
Over the first 11 months of this year, passenger traffic climbed 4.8 percent to 51.5 million while cargo volume grew by 1.7 percent to 3.7 million tonnes. Flight movements rose to 320,860, up 5.4 percent compared with the same period last year.
The growth in passenger traffic was driven mainly by Hong Kong resident travel, which saw a 12 percent rise over the same month last year. Passenger traffic to and from Southeast Asia and Chinese mainland performed particularly well.
Growth in November cargo throughput was primarily due to 11 percent year-on-year growth in exports. During the month, cargo throughput to and from North America and Southeast Asia outperformed other key regions.
“We are pleased to see very healthy growth in all traffic figures, especially the sustained rebound of cargo volume for four consecutive months despite a consistently challenging global economic environment,” said Stanley Hui Hon-chung, chief executive officer of Airport Authority Hong Kong.
“We remain cautiously optimistic about the potential for cargo throughput, and we foresee this positive trend continuing at HKIA,” Hui said.
To cater for the seasonal surge in demand for the coming Christmas and New Year holidays, a total of 250 extra passenger flights will be added by the airlines. Popular destinations include Taipei, Seoul and Southeast Asia.
Xinhua