In the first three quarters of the year, HKIA’s year-on-year cargo throughput was down by 22.9 per cent, 17.1 per cent and 5.9 per cent from Q1 to Q3, but a 16.2 per cent gain in Q4 helped narrow the full year’s decline.

“Hong Kong’s aviation industry faced a number of challenges in 2009. We saw contractions in all three air traffic categories, which were due in large part to the global financial crisis that began in the latter part of 2008. The outbreak of H1N1 and the gradual increase in the number of cross-strait direct flights also had negative effects on HKIA,” said Stanley Hui Hon-chung, CEO of theAirport Authority Hong Kong (AA).

“In addition, volatile fuel prices, yield erosion from significantly reduced demand in front-end business traffic, and low cargo yields for most of 2009 caused airlines to reduce frequencies and suspend services to destinations, which continued to result in financial losses,” he added.

Hactl
Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl), which handles about 70 per cent of HKIA’s total cargo throughput, said the territory’s tradeperformance showed a vast improvement towards the end of the year, but the wholeyear’s cargo throughput dipped 8.3 percent year on year.

“This past year has been a year full of ups and downs. While we came across difficult moments in the first six months, the global economy has delightfully stabilised from the third quarter and has picked up faster than expected,” said Hactl’s general manager, Marketing and Customer Service, Lilian Chan.

“At Hactl, our potential handling capacity is 3.5 million tonnes per annum. In 2009, we handled 2.32 million tonnes, accounting for approximately 66 per cent of the terminal capacity. Indeed, we always look at the cargo throughput instead of a particular point when our handling will become ‘full’. In addition, we work closely with our airline customers to ensure premium cargo handling services are provided as always at SuperTerminal 1.

“We keep reviewing and improving the process flow within the terminal and make sure all the cargoes are handled in a smoother and smarter way. We target to further reduce and even eliminate unnecessary bottleneck in the cargo operations that helps further boost our handling capacity, ensuring we can have a higher utilisation rate,” Chan said.

Currently, Hactl serves over 90 airlines, including about 40 of which use its ground handling services including air cargo documentation handling and ramp handling.

Regarding average ground handling service time, Chan said it was difficult to make a fair comment as Hactl’s services to an airline varied because of different types of aircraft, whether it is a freighter or a passenger flight, or even the capacity, would certainly affect the handling time.

“But there is indeed a general expectation on ramp handling (approximately 70 minutes for one freighter); however, being a one-stopshop terminal operator, we can streamline the time required for the handling and handover between cargo terminal operator operation and ramp handling, and we have all advantages to expedite the whole handling process,” she said.

Hactl’s new customers in the fourth quarter of 2009 included Air Cargo Germany, Air Pacific, Eurex Airlines and Yangtze River Express. For the whole of 2009, Hactl managed to attract a total of 10 new customers.

“Aggregate export tonnage for the whole year was 1.23 million tonnes, down 11.6 per cent against 2008. Exports to US and Europe continued to improve in December with a growth of 39.9 per cent and 38.6 per cent respectively,” Chan said, adding that the export trading to the Mainland China had improved 58.6 per cent, a significant rise compared tothe same period in 2008.

“Overall, we are conservatively optimistic about our 2010 performance and expect a single digit growth for the whole year,” she said.

Asked about competition from neighbouring airports, Chan said: “We do not view the rapid development of Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Macau, and Zhuhai airports as competition, but we do look at possible synergies among the airports as a result of such growth.

“Efforts will be made to grow the ‘pie’ instead of just ensuring to share the biggest portion of the existing pie. That’s why we keep working closely with Airport Authority and other business partners to promote and market Hong Kong,” she said, adding that Hactl continued improving its automated storage facilities as well as the IT systems that support the huge cargo flow within the terminal.

AAT
Asia Airfreight Terminal Co Ltd (AAT) general manager, Corporate Development, Nelson Lee, said it handled 514,200 tonnes for the whole of 2009, a 15 per cent decline compared with the cargo throughput in 2008. “Last year was a very tough year for the air cargo industry, hopefully the recent positive signs could sustain in 2010,” Lee said.

AAT also managed to attract new customers last year such as Zest Airways, which launched its inaugural flight to Hong Kong and Luzon Island Clark Field, Philippines using A320 aircraft in October, and Kingfisher Airlines, which launched services between Hong Kong and India using Airbus A330-200 aircraft in September.

The 35 per cent year on year increase in cargo throughput via AAT’s facilities in December 2009 representing a total of 54,047 tonnes, reflects the recovery of cargo demand through HKIA. Export cargo in December was 38,506 tonnes, registering a 50 per cent growth, while import cargo was 15,284 tonnes, up 7 per cent versus the same period last year. However, transshipment cargo volume showed a drop of 5 per cent to 258 tonnes.

Cumulative January to December 2009 export tonnage was 348,469 tonnes, a 15 per cent dip year on year. Total import tonnage from January to December 2009 fell 16 per cent versus the same period last year, to 161,150 tonnes. Transshipment cargo volume for the year of 2009 was 4,581 tonnes, up 11 per cent.

AAT boosted its management with the return of Daniel Boy to the company as General Manager effective 1 August2009.