Hong Kong Airport cargo throughput dips in February

March 19, 2019: Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) saw cargo throughput decline by 14.4 percent year-on-year to 274,000 tonnes in February.

The hub cites unfavourable macroeconomic conditions as the reason for the decline.

On the other hand, the airport saw positive growth in passenger traffic and flight movements for the month. During the month, HKIA handled 5.89 million passengers, an increase of 1.1 percent year-on-year.

Over the first two months of the year, HKIA handled 12.4 million passengers, representing year-on-year increase of 3.6 percent, which was driven by 7 percent year-on-year growth in transfer/transit traffic. Japan and Southeast Asia recorded the most significant traffic increases over the first two months of the year.

Cargo traffic during the period was affected by the decrease in cargo traffic to and from two most important regions - Europe and Southeast Asia. HKIA handled 676,000 tonnes of cargo in January and February 2019 for an 8.6 percent decrease compared to the same period in 2018. The airport witnessed 10 percent drop in both imports and exports in these two months. Combining the figures of January and February for comparison would cancel the effect of Chinese New Year holidays.

On a 12-month rolling basis, HKIA handled 75.1 million passengers and 428,365 flight movements, representing increases of 2.7 percent and 1.4 percent over the same period last year. Cargo throughput saw a slight decrease of 0.9 percent to 5.06 million tonnes.