Hong Kong International Airport’s passenger traffic rose by 5.6% to 4.3m in the month of May, while flight movements continued to grow steadily by 9.8% to 27,845, according to Airport Authority.

The authority said that growth in passenger traffic was mainly driven by Hong Kong resident travel, which registered growth of 13% over the same period last year. Passenger traffic to and from South East Asia performed particularly well during the period.

A decline in cargo throughput was mainly attributable to a 13% decrease in exports during the month. Import and trans-shipment volumes also dropped by 7% and 5% respectively. Europe, Taiwan, Japan and the Mainland all experienced double-digit year-on-year declines.

Stanley Hui Hon-chung, Ceo of Airport Authority Hong Kong, said the weak cargo performance was partly due to the higher comparison base of last May, when traffic surged 41.6% to 366,000 tonnes amid the strong worldwide economic rebound. 

FIVE NEW CARRIERS AT HKIA
“Between May and July this year, five new carriers, namely Air Busan, MIAT Mongolian Airlines, Tianjin Airlines, Jin Air and Airphil Express, will start operating at HKIA, providing more choices to our passengers in terms of both destinations and flight frequency. 

“With these newcomers, HKIA will have around 100 airlines operating flights to about 160 destinations worldwide,” said Hui.

On a rolling 12-month basis, the airport’s passenger and cargo volumes were 52.1m and 4.1m tonnes respectively, representing increases of 9.9% and 8.7%. Flight movements also saw a yearly increase of 13.8% during the period, reaching 321,805.