HONG KONG International Airport (HKIA) suffered a 5.9 per cent drop in air freight to 242,000 tonnes in February compared to the same month the previous year.

    Stanley Hui Hon-chung, chief executive officer of Airport Authority Hong Kong, said this was "mainly due to the impact of the Chinese New Year. The combined cargo volume for the first two months of the year showed a year on year growth of 3.1 per cent reaching 575,000 tonnes. This was driven by the strong performance of imports and transshipments. Strong momentum continued with the North America market as it saw double-digit year on year growth in the same period."

    But passenger numbers increased two per cent to four million and flight movements were up 9.2 per cent in February year on year to 24,295, with airport authorities attributing the growth to increased demand over the Chinese New Year holiday at the beginning of the month.

    The combined number of passengers for January and February registered six per cent year on year growth to reach 8.3 million. Passenger traffic to and from south east Asia and the Chinese mainland were said to have performed "particularly well" during this period. The combined flight movements over the first two months of the year rose by 13.1 per cent to 51,705.

    "Despite the slower start to the year, we are confident that the prospects of the aviation market remain positive. We are also delighted to see more new airlines launching air services to HKIA," said Mr Hui.

    In January, Indonesia AirAsia launched its services to Medan, which is a new destination for the airport. Another new airline, South East Asian Airlines, is due to inaugurate flights to Clark in the Philippines this month.

    On a rolling 12-month basis, HKIA handled 4.1 million tonnes of cargo, up 18.6 per cent, and 51.4 million passengers, up 10.1 per cent over the corresponding period a year earlier. Flight movements also registered growth of 11.8 per cent at 312,530.

(Source:http://www.schednet.com)