HKIA cargo up 6.3% in September on transshipment surge

Cargo volume at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) went up again in September, mainly because of strong transshipment and import traffic from Asia. This made up for weaker trade with Europe.

The airport handled 433,000 tonnes of cargo during the month, up from 407,000 tonnes in September 2025. Transshipments rose 26.9% year-on-year and imports rose 9.2%. Southeast Asia and the Chinese Mainland drove most of the growth. Together they more than made up for lower volumes on European trades, which fell after the EU removed its duty-free de minimis exemption for low-value consignments in July.

The provisional statistics show inbound cargo did better than outbound. Unloaded cargo rose 14.6% to 126,000 tonnes, while loaded cargo grew 3.2% to 306,000 tonnes.

Cargo flight movements rose 3.9% to 6,515 in September, compared with 6,270 a year earlier.

Over the first three quarters of 2026, HKIA handled 3.78 million tonnes of cargo, up 3.1% year-on-year. For the financial year starting in April, the airport handled 2.576 million tonnes, up 3%. Unloaded cargo rose 10.2% to 733,000 tonnes over this period, while loaded cargo was almost flat, up 0.4% at 1.843 million tonnes. Cargo flights over the same period rose 1.7% to 39,490.

On a 12-month rolling basis, cargo throughput grew 3.3% to 5.18 million tonnes. Unloaded volumes rose 8.5% to 1.439 million tonnes and loaded volumes rose 1.5% to 3.741 million tonnes. Cargo flight movements over the 12 months rose 2.1% to 79,715.

HKIA’s September numbers show the airport doing well as a regional transshipment hub. Carriers and forwarders are moving capacity towards intra-Asia and China-linked flows while European e-commerce volumes adjust to the new EU customs rules.