HKIA sees growth in all traffic categories in April

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) reported another busy month in April 2013 with across-the-board increases in traffic volume. Passenger trips and flight movements continued their upward trajectories, recording year-on-year growth of 1.1% and 5.1% to 4.9 million and 30,530 respectively, while cargo throughput reached 342,000 tonnes, up 4.5% compared to last April.

Visitation was the main driver behind the growth in passenger traffic with a 7% increase from the same month in 2012. Routes to and from mainland China and South East Asia performed particularly well.
Higher cargo throughput in April was primarily the result of a 5% year-on-year growth in exports. During the month, cargo throughput to and from South East Asia and Taiwan outperformed other key regions.

Stanley Hui Hon-Chung, Chief Executive Officer of the Airport Authority Hong Kong, said, “We are delighted to see growth in all traffic categories in April. To meet the increasing demand for the medium term, six new parking stands will become operational by next month, and another 15 will be available before end of the year. Together with the Midfield development project, which includes a new passenger concourse with 20 parking stands, we will put in place a total of 48 new parking stands between now and the end of 2015 in phases. Other expansion in facilities, for instance, an increase of 10 additional air-side shuttle buses, is also being implemented to meet medium-term growth.”

For the first four months of the year, HKIA handled 19.2 million passengers, 1.28 million tonnes of cargo and 119,025 flight movements, representing year-on-year growth of 4.1%, 2.2% and 4.2% respectively.

On a rolling 12-month basis, the airport handled 57.2 million passenger trips and 4.05 million tonnes of cargo, up 3.5% and 3.4% respectively over the same period last year. Flight movements grew 4.7% over the same period to 356,475.