Economy

Markets

Industries

Insights

Reports

Events

HK airport traffic figures improve in July

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-17 15:24

Air traffic at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) further stabilized in July, with year-on-year drops in passenger throughput, cargo tonnage and air traffic movements narrowing from the previous month, the Hong Kong Airport Authority announced Sunday.

Cargo traffic saw an improvement from the double-digit plunges that had been recorded since Nov 2008, said the authority in a statement.

During July, the airport handled a total of 291,000 tons of cargo, 4 million passenger trips and 23,315 air traffic movements, representing year-on-year decreases of 8.3 percent, 9.5 percent, and 9.9 percent, respectively.

While the volume of cargo exports declined by approximately 13 percent year-on-year, imports and transshipments showed a low single-digit decrease as compared to the same period last year.

Key export markets experiencing double-digit drops included Europe, North America, South East Asia and Japan. On the passenger side, Hong Kong residents showed a yearly growth of around 3 percent, while visitors declined by around 17 percent.

Related readings:  Traffic volumes at HK airport continue to decline in Feb.  CASL sets up new aircraft maintenance hangar at HKIA  Shenzhen Airport net profits rise 275.55%

Stanley Hui Hon-chung, chief executive officer of the authority, said the public's receding concern over Influenza A/H1N1 and the summer travel peak were the two major reasons behind last month's comparatively better performance in passenger traffic.

"The latest figures indicate that the downward momentum may have slowed. While we believe air traffic figures will see milder drops in the months ahead, it will take some time before overall traffic performance returns to pre-crisis levels," he sad.

The business climate is still challenging as economic activities remain low and this couples with the difficult operating environment for the aviation industry would continue to affect the pace of recovery, he said.

For the first seven months of the year, HKIA' s passenger traffic was down by 8.4 percent to 26.4 million, while cargo throughput dropped 18.1 percent to 1.8 million tons and aircraft movements slid 8.0 percent to 161,605.