Hong Kong Airport Reports August 2011 Traffic

Passenger traffic and flight movements at Hong Kong International Airport set new monthly records in August 2011.

Fuelled by the burgeoning demand during the traditional summer peak season, passenger traffic continued its upswing, registering a year-on-year growth of 6.5% to a new record high of 5 million.

During the month, flight movements also reached a new high of 28,940, up 6.7% year on year, breaking the previous record made in March 2011. The cargo market saw a corresponding drop of 7.8% to 319,000 tonnes due to the weakening economic conditions in the US and Europe.

The growth in passenger traffic in August was mainly driven by visitors' traffic and transfer/transit passengers which saw growth of 10% and 8% respectively over the same period last year. Passenger traffic to/from South East Asia performed particularly well.

Stanley Hui Hon-chung, Chief Executive Officer of Airport Authority Hong Kong, said, "It is very encouraging to see new records set for passenger traffic and flight movements at HKIA. We are also delighted to see continuous growth in passengers using the cross-boundary transport. During the month, a new high of more than 249,000 passengers used the ferry services at the SkyPier connecting HKIA to eight ports in the Pearl River Delta, which represented a year-on-year growth of 11%."

Mr Hui added that the growth momentum in passenger traffic at HKIA would continue as another travel peak is anticipated during the National Day Golden Week holidays.

While the cargo decline in August was mainly attributed to the 11% year-on-year drop in export volume, imports and transshipments reduced by 5% and 1% respectively compared to the same month last year. Europe, North America, Taiwan and Japan experienced double-digit year-on-year decrease in overall cargo traffic.

For the first eight months of this year, HKIA handled a total of 35.9 million passenger trips representing a growth of 5.9% when compared to the same period last year. Flight movements amounted to 220,315, up 10.9% year on year, while total cargo tonnage dropped 3.6% to 2.6 million.

On a 12-month rolling basis, passenger traffic and cargo tonnage registered a respective growth of 7.3% and 1.3% to 52.9 million and 4 million. Flight movements also went up by 12% to 328,110.

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