HKIA reports 2% drop in passenger volume in March 2017

TIN news:  Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) has registered a 2% fall in passenger volume, with 5.9 million passengers travelling through the gates of the airport in March, compared to the same month in 2016.

The major reason that caused the drop in passenger figures at the airport is the Hong Kong resident travel, which saw a year-on-year decline of 11%, owing to the Easter holiday that fell in March last year.

Though the number of visitors at the airport recorded a year-on-year increase of 6%, passenger volumes to and from Mainland China, Southeast Asia and Taiwan registered major drops.

However, last month, the cargo segment at HKIA handled a significant rise in freight volume, with a growth of 17.8% to 433,000t, compared to the same month in 2016.

In addition, flight movements at the airport registered a year-on-year increase of 0.5% to 35,250.

The surge in cargo volumes was primarily due to the exports, which registered a strong year-on-year growth of 24%, while imports and transshipments also saw a double-digit increase.

While passenger traffic and flight movements during the first quarter of this year reduced by 0.1% to 17.6 million and 1.1% to 101,800, respectively, the cargo volume during the same period reported a significant 11.5% year-on-year rise to 1.1 million tonnes.

On a rolling 12-month basis, HKIA welcomed 70.5 million passengers, handled 4.6 million tonnes of freight volumes and registered a total of 410,440 flight movements, marking year-on-year increases of 1.1%, 6.7% and 0.1% respectively.