Traffic at HKIA grows steadily in first half of 2012

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) reported solid growth in the first half of 2012, serving 27.6 million passengers – a 6.9% surge – and setting a new single-day record of approximately 194,000 passengers on 28 April. In addition, air traffic movements climbed by 5.8% to 171,870 during the first six months of the year, while cargo throughput remained unchanged at 1.9 million tonnes over the same period last year.

The steady performance for the first half of 2012 was further driven by overall traffic growth in June. During the month, passenger volume rose to 4.7 million and air traffic movements reached 28,415, representing increases of 5.5% and 4.9% respectively compared to June 2011. Positive growth in cargo tonnage continued for a second consecutive month, with HKIA handling 334,000 tonnes of cargo, up 4.1% from a year ago.

The growth in passenger traffic in June was driven mainly by visitor traffic and Hong Kong resident travel, which saw 6% and 9% gains respectively over the same month last year. Passenger traffic to and from Japan and South East Asia performed particularly well.

The growth in cargo throughput last month was primarily due to an 8% year-on-year growth in imports. During June, cargo throughput to and from South East Asia outperformed other key regions.

Stanley Hui Hon-chung, Chief Executive Officer of Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA), said, “In addition to the healthy growth figures, we are also pleased to welcome the addition of four new airlines, Far Eastern Air Transport, Mongolian Airlines Group, Peach Aviation and AirAsia Philippines, each of whom launched services at HKIA in 2012. Such keen interest in being able to operate routes to and from HKIA reflects the attractiveness of Hong Kong as a market and underpins the competitiveness of the airport being a leading international and regional aviation hub.”

Apart from the steady growth in air traffic, cross-boundary traffic by land and sea between HKIA and the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region recorded sustained increases in the first half of this year. Passenger trips via coach and limousine registered a yearly increase of 5.3% to 959,000, while the SkyPier ferry terminal handled almost 1.3 million passengers to and from the PRD, up 11.6% year on year.

“While we are continuously enhancing with our short-, medium- and long-term development programmes, we also recognise how vital human resources are to the efficiency, safety and service standards of HKIA. The AA and the Labour Department will jointly host a large-scale job expo in early August, helping the airport community recruit staff to meet its operational and growth needs,” said Mr Hui.

On a rolling 12-month basis, the airport welcomed 55.7 million passengers and handled 343,165 flight movements, representing year-on-year growth of 6.4% and 5.9% respectively. Cargo volume declined slightly by 3.5% to 3.9 million tonnes.

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