HKIA Records Double-digit Traffic Growth in January

Hong Kong International Airport recorded double-digit growth in all three air traffic categories in the first month of 2011. During January 2011, passenger volumes surged to 4.3 million and cargo throughput reached 333,000 tonnes: up 10.0% and 10.8% year on year respectively. Air traffic movements also grew by 16.9% over the previous January to 27,410.

The growth in passenger traffic in January was mainly driven by visitor traffic and Hong Kong resident travel. Passenger traffic to and from South East Asia and the Chinese mainland performed particularly well. During the month, the number of transfer or transit passengers grew by 6% year on year.

Stanley Hui Hon-chung, the CEO of the Hong Kong Airport Authority Hong Kong, said that "passenger volumes and aircraft movement figures continued to rise over the Chinese New Year period, and a new daily record of more than 170,000 passengers was set on February 7. During the period between February 2-8, the airport handled nearly 1.1 million passengers and over 6,100 air traffic movements, up 3.8% and 7.7% from the CNY period last year.

On a rolling 12-month basis, the airport handled 51.3 million passengers and more than 4.1 million tonnes of cargo, an increase of 11.3% and 21.1% over the same period in the previous year. Aircraft movements also showed an increase of 11.4%, amounting to 310,500.