Hong Kong International Airport saw freight volumes rise 1.1 percent, year-over-year, to 346,000 tonnes in October. An 11-percent, year-over-year, surge in transshipments drove growth last month, with HKIA’s loads to and from North America and Mainland China particularly strong.
HKIA, which eclipsed Memphis International Airport as the world’s busiest cargo airport in 2010, also saw slight improvement from a 10-month standpoint. The airport processed 3.3 million tonnes of freight from January to October, a 0.9-percent, year-over-year, increase. Aircraft movements surged 5.2 percent, year-over-year, during this period, according to a press release.
Stanley Hui Hon-chung, CEO of Airport Authority Hong Kong, said he expects even stronger traffic in the last two months of year. “Preliminary numbers on cargo throughput in November suggest a welcome and strong rebound in the year-end peak months,” he said in a statement. “We are cautiously optimistic about cargo performance for 2012, given the arrival of the holiday season.”
Despite such optimism, the Asia-Pacific as a whole has seen sluggish freight volumes lately. International Air Transportation Association statistics showed cargo demand stalling 1.6 percent, year-over-year, in the Asia-Pacific in September, amid a 3-percent, year-over-year, capacity decline.
Passenger carriers in this region recorded a 1.7 percent, year-over-year, uptick in traffic during this period; even so, this was one of the weakest increases from a global perspective.
