Hong Kong International Airport has reported a 1.6% fall in passenger traffic in January, while cargo traffic registered a double-digit growth.
The total number of passengers handled by the airport fell 1.6% to 3.9 million passengers from a year ago, says the airport. Air traffic movements fell 3.2% to 23,460.
"The slight drop of passenger traffic and air traffic movements were mainly attributed to the relatively higher base as a result of the Chinese New Year travel peak last January," adds the airport.
Hong Kong resident travel fell 9% year-on-year, but visitor traffic grew 2% with traffic from South-east Asia and North Asia showing the highest increases, says the airport.
"Transfer / transit traffic registered a slight drop of 1%," it adds.
On the cargo front, the total amount of cargo handled grew 43.3% to 301,000t from a year ago, says the airport.
"The aviation market continued to rebound during the first month of 2010, particularly on the cargo side amid improving economy and global trade activities," says the Hong Kong Airport Authority's CEO Stanley Hui.
"Whilst passenger volume and air traffic movements showed mild declines year-on-year due to the 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."
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
