HKIA posts record rise in passenger volume and flight movements

Was mainly driven by visitor traffic.

Hong Kong International Airport said passenger throughput in September rose by 9.3% on- year to 4.8 million. On the other hand, flight movements improved 5.5% to 30,440. Cargo volume saw deceleration of 0.8% to 344,000 tonnes.

Fueling the growth in passenger traffic was visitor traffic that increased 12% on-year. Passenger traffic to and from South East Asia and Mainland China outperformed other key regions.

The decline in cargo throughput last month was mainly traced to a 3% on-year drop in imports. Exports saw a slight decline, while transshipments grew 1% increase to the same month last year.

HKIA CEO Stanley Hui Hon-chung said complementing the steady upward trend in air passengers and flight movements, cross-boundary transport at HKIA also served a significant number of visitors during the National Day Golden Week earlier this month.

Cross-boundary limousine and coach passengers to and from the Pearl River Delta set a new daily record of around 10,500 on 7 October. Over 50,000 passengers used HKIA’s SkyPier ferry services during the first seven days of the month, which is a reflection of the increasing importance of HKIA as a gateway to the Pearl River Delta.

For the first three quarters of 2013, HKIA handled 44.8 million passengers, 3 million tonnes of cargo and 275,645 flight movements, representing year-on-year increases of 6%, 1.7% and 5.6%, respectively.

On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger volume at HKIA rose 5.4% yearly to 59 million. Cargo tonnage grew 2.8% to 4.1 million tones. Flight movements improved 5.6% to 366 on-year.