Rebound in air cargo registered

Air cargo volumes continued to rebound at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), which handled 301,000 metric tons of air cargo in January, representing a strong year-on-year increase of 43.3%.            

Passenger throughput and air traffic movements reached 3.9 million and 23,460, representing declines of 1.6% and 3.2%, respectively. These slight drops are mainly attributed to the relatively higher base as a result of the Chinese New Year travel peak in January 2009. One year later, Hong Kong resident travel declined approximately 9% year-on-year while visitor traffic grew approximately 2%, with those from Southeast Asia and North Asia showing the highest increases. Transfer/ transit traffic registered a slight drop of approximately 1%.           

On the cargo side, nearly all major HKIA markets showed double-digit growth compared with the same period last year. The substantial growth was a result of imports and exports recording a respective yearly growth of 55% and 51%, respectively. Meanwhile, transhipments grew 14%.           

“The aviation market continued to rebound during the first month of 2010, particularly on the cargo side amid improving economy and global trade activities,” Airport Authority Chief Executive Officer Stanley Hui said. “Whilst passenger volume and air traffic movements showed mild declines year-on-year due to timing difference of the Chinese New Year holidays, we believe January and February taken together will likely also show an encouraging growth trend over the same period last year.”           

This year, the first day of Chinese New Year’s fell on February 14. Approximately 850 extra flights were scheduled for the weeklong holiday. An increased number of passengers were expected to come in from the Pearl River Delta via high-speed ferries to fly out of HKIA. The newly opened SkyPier ferry terminal was expected to handle more than 7,000 passengers per day during the holiday period, up from the daily average of approximately 5,000. To cope with the surge in travelers at HKIA, automated people-mover services were increased, more staff was deployed to assist passengers and operating hours were extended for dining and catering outlets.

Airlines record increased passenger volume

Combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for January show a small increase in passenger volumes compared with January 2009, alongside a significant increase in cargo and mail tonnage.            

In the first month of the year, Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried 2,100,354 passengers — up 0.4% from a year earlier. The month’s passenger load factor was 83.8%, up 4.3 percentage points, while capacity for the month, measured in available seat kilometers (ASKs), was down 3.6%.            

The two airlines carried a total of 132,586 metric tons of cargo and mail in January, up 31.1% year-on-year. The cargo and mail load factor climbed 15.8 percentage points to 74.9%, while capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometers, was down 0.9%.