Passenger Traffic and Flight Movements Set Monthly Record in August

(HONG KONG, 14 September 2014)  –  Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) continued to see upswings in all three traffic categories. Fuelled by burgeoning demand in the summer peak season, passenger throughput in August rose by 3.3% year on year to 5.8 million, beating the previous record set in the same month last year. Flight movements recorded a 4.0% increase over last August to 33,700, achieving a new monthly high for the second month in a row. Cargo throughput also saw a remarkable growth of 8.8% to 366,000 tonnes.

The growth in passenger traffic in August was mainly driven by a 6% year-on-year growth in transfer/transit traffic and a 5% growth in Hong Kong resident traffic. Passenger traffic to/from North Asia and North America recorded the most significant increases.

The growth in cargo throughput last month was driven mainly by transshipments, which were up 22% from a year ago. During the month, cargo throughput to/from Southeast Asia and Mainland China improved most significantly compared to other key regions.

C K Ng, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA), said, “It is encouraging to see that HKIA has once again achieved new traffic records this month. We anticipate air traffic at HKIA to continue its growth trend during the remainder of the year in view of the upcoming travel peaks of the National Day golden week and Christmas.

"We are also pleased to report that HKIA has been honoured as the World’s Best Airport in Smart Travel Asia’s 2014 Best in Travel Poll. Readers of the online publication, mainly business travellers, were particularly impressed by HKIA’s efficiency. In addition, the AA has also been awarded the ‘Energy Saving Award of Excellence’ in CLP Power Hong Kong’s GREENPLUS Recognition Award Programme for optimising energy use. Despite the operational challenges arising from busier traffic at HKIA, we will continue to put forth our utmost effort in delivering the highest levels of service and realising our commitment to become the world’s greenest airport,” Mr Ng added.

Over the first eight months of this year, HKIA handled 42.2 million passenger trips, 2.8 million tonnes of cargo and 258,105 flight movements, registering respective growth of 5.5%, 6.9% and 5.2% compared to the same period last year.

On a 12-month rolling basis, passenger traffic climbed 6.0% to 62.1 million while cargo volume increased by 5.7% to 4.3 million tonnes. Flight movements also recorded 5.6% year-on-year growth to 384,935.