HKIA records strong traffic growth in October

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) reported strong growth in all three traffic categories in October. Passenger throughput and flight movements sustained their growth trends, registering year-on-year growth of 6.8% and 6.1%, respectively, reaching 5 million passengers and 31,865 flight movements. Cargo volume also grew by 6.1% over the same month last year to 367,000 tonnes.

The growth in October passenger traffic was practically across the board, covering both visitor traffic and Hong Kong resident traffic, which saw 7% and 11% gains, respectively, over the same month last year. Passenger traffic to and from South East Asia, Japan and Mainland China recorded the most significant increases.

A 10% year-on-year increase in exports led the growth in cargo tonnage last month. Cargo throughput to and from South East Asia and Mainland China surpassed growth to other key regions.

Stanley Hui Hon-chung, Chief Executive Officer of Airport Authority Hong Kong, said, “We are pleased to see HKIA’s overall traffic growth – especially on the cargo front – amid the uncertain, yet improving, global economy. Looking ahead, we expect this upward momentum to continue as we approach the end of the year. Cargo throughput is expected to outperform the global average for the year, reinforcing HKIA’s position as the world’s busiest cargo hub.

“Recently, HKIA’s extensive flight destination network has been further expanded with the introduction of weekly passenger service to Irkutsk, Russia, operated by S7 Airlines; as well as twice-weekly freighter service to Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city, operated by Cathay Pacific. We are also delighted to welcome Scoot, a Singapore-based low cost carrier targeting at the medium haul markets from Singapore, which has started operating five flights a week between Hong Kong and Singapore from 15 November,” Mr Hui added.

Over the first 10 months of this year, HKIA handled 49.8 million passenger trips, 3.4 million tonnes of cargo and 307,535 flight movements, representing growth of 6.1%, 2.2% and 5.6%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger traffic climbed 5.8% year on year to 59.3 million, while cargo volume rose 3.3% year on year to 4.1 million tonnes. Flight movements increased 5.7% yearly to 368,045.

Download the traffic statistics