HONG KONG: Passenger traffic at Hong Kong International Airport hit a high point last month, jumping 8.8 percent from a year ago to 5.8 million, although cargo volume fell slightly by 0.7 percent.
The surging passenger volume was driven by a 13 percent growth in transfer or transit traffic and a 12 percent rise in local resident traffic, amid a significant increase in traffic to and from Southeast Asia and North Asia. That surpassed the previous record made in August.
The decline in cargo throughput was mainly attributed to a 5 percent drop in transshipments.
Imports and exports both registered a 1 percent increase.
Traffic to and from North America outperformed other key regions.
Aircraft movements increased 3.1 percent to 33,725.
For the first four months of the year, passenger volume grew 8.8 percent to 22.2 million and cargo volume rose 1.9 percent to 1.4 million tonnes from a year back.
Flight movements climbed 4.7 percent to 132,620.
On a rolling 12-month basis, the airport processed 65.1 million passengers, a rise of 6.6 percent, and 4.4 million tonnes of cargo, an increase of 4.9 percent. Flight movements grew 4.6 percent to 396,985.
“In addition to expanding our flight network, the airport has also recently extended upstream check-in services to Jiuzhou Port in Zhuhai, enhancing multi- modal connectivity throughout the Pearl River Delta,” said Henry Ma Yiu-man, Airport Authority general manager of market and connectivity development.
