HONG KONG. Passenger traffic at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) climbed by +6.5% year-on-year to 4.2 million in March, Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) has reported. Air traffic movements increased by +2.5% over last March to 24,370.
Visitor and Hong Kong resident numbers for March showed year-on-year increases of +11.1% and +9.4% respectively, with traffic on routes to and from Southeast Asia, Mainland China and Japan performing particularly well. There was also strong double-digit growth in cargo traffic, a key indicator of economic health.
AAHK Chief Executive Stanley Hui Hon-chung said: “While all air traffic categories continued to show gains in March, cargo throughput – which is +29.5% higher than the same period in 2009 and +4% higher than 2008 – performed particularly well as a result of continuing recovery in the global economy as well as trade.”
In the first quarter of 2010, HKIA handled 12 million passengers, 905,000 tonnes of cargo and 70,100 aircraft movements, representing yearly increases of +6.7%, +34% and +1.2% respectively. This was the first time since the financial crisis in 2008 that all three traffic figures have recorded positive growth in the same quarter.
“We are encouraged by the strong figures in the first quarter and are optimistic that air traffic will soon return to pre-crisis levels if the existing trends continue,” Hui added. “To meet the growing demand for air services, handling capacity of HKIA’s two runways has been raised from 58 to 59 movements per hour as planned for the summer operating season, effective from the end of March. According to the plan announced by the Civil Aviation Department, the hourly movement capacity of the two-runway system at HKIA will be further increased in phases over the coming years, reaching 68 movements per hour by 2015.”
On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger volume and aircraft movements slid by -1.7% and -5.4% respectively, to 47 million and 280,325.
