Boosted by the increased demand over the Chinese
New Year holiday, Hong Kong International Airport handled 4
million passengers and 24,295 flight movements in February 2011,
representing a year-on-year growth of 2% and 9.2% respectively.
Cargo tonnage however, experienced a 5.9% drop at 242,000 tonnes
in the month.
Stanley Hui Hon-chung, Chief Executive Officer
of Airport Authority Hong Kong, said, "The negative growth in
cargo tonnage was mainly due to the seasonal impact of CNY. The
combined cargo volume for the first two months of the year showed
a year-on-year growth of 3.1% reaching 575,000 tonnes. This was
driven by the strong performance of import and transshipment.
Strong momentum continued with the North America market as it saw
double-digit year-on-year growth in the same period."
As
for the passenger market, the traffic growth in February was
largely driven by Hong Kong resident travel during the holiday.
The aggregate figure for January and February registered a
year-on-year increase of 6% reaching 8.3 million. Passenger
traffic to / from South East Asia and the Chinese Mainland
performed particularly well during this period. Meanwhile, the
combined flight movements of the past two months also reached
51,705, a corresponding rise of 13.1%.
Mr Hui said,
"Despite the slower start to the year, we are confident that the
prospects of the aviation market remain positive this year. We are
also delighted to see more new airlines launching air services to
HKIA. These new services provide passengers with a greater variety
of flight choices, as well as strengthening HKIA's international
and regional aviation hub status."
In January, Indonesia
AirAsia launched its services to / from Medan, which is a new
destination for the airport. Another new airline, South East Asian
Airlines, is due to inaugurate flights to Clark in the Philippines
this month.
On a rolling 12-month basis, HKIA handled 51.4
million passengers and 4.1 million tonnes of cargo, an increase of
10.1% and 18.6% over the corresponding period last year. Flight
movements also registered a growth of 11.8% reaching 312,530.
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February 2011,
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