Aviation Market Shows Sign of Stabilisation

(HONG KONG, 20 July 2009) ─  June passenger volume and cargo traffic at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) declined by 18.9% and 13.4% when compared to the same month in 2008, to 3.3 million and 270,000 tonnes, respectively. Air traffic movements also decreased by 13.3% to 21,505.

The declines in passenger volume and aircraft movements were mainly attributable to the continually weak global economy and reduction in flights by airlines to reflect lower demand. Demand for travel was further dampened by the global fear sparked by Influenza A (H1N1). As a result, travel by Hong Kong residents and visitors dropped by 12% and 25% year-on-year respectively. On the cargo side, exports declined 17% over the same month last year, mainly due to the continually weak consumption markets in North America and Europe. 

For the first half of 2009, HKIA handled a total of 22.4 million passengers, 1.5 million tonnes of air cargo and 138,290 aircraft movements, representing drops of 8.2%, 19.8% and 7.7% respectively when compared to first half of 2008.

Comparing the year-on-year changes of air traffic performance of the first and second quarters of 2009 showed a further decline in passenger traffic while cargo throughput showed signs of stabilisation. When compared to the first three months of 2009, April to June in 2009 saw an additional decline of 2.1 percentage points in passenger throughput where cargo volume showed an improvement of 5.9 percentage points *.  

Commenting on the first-half traffic performance, Stanley Hui Hon-Chung, Chief Executive Officer of the Airport Authority Hong Kong, said, "The quarter-for-quarter comparison reflects that while passenger traffic experienced a further drop, brought about most likely by the outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1) which we hope is a one-off phenomenon, the airfreight market has shown signs of stabilising. June’s year-on-year 13.4% drop in cargo throughput was noticeably smaller than the 20% declines recorded in recent months, which were smaller still than the 30% reductions recorded in end-2008/ early 2009."

Mr Hui added that as people’s concern over Influenza A (H1N1) recedes and the global economy starts to stabilise and eventually recovers, he expects passenger traffic for the months ahead to see smaller reductions while cargo volume will also gradually recover.

For the 12 months ended 30 June 2009, 46.6 million passengers, 3.3 million tonnes of cargo and 289,630 air traffic movements passed through HKIA, representing year-on-year decreases of 5.8%, 15.3% and 4.1%, respectively.

* Year-on-year percentage change in air traffic figures