Hong Kong’s cargo volume up double digits in April

by Payload Asia

Photo credit: HKIA

Press release

Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA) released Hong Kong International Airport’s (HKIA) traffic statistics for April 2021. During the month, cargo throughput saw a year-on-year increase of 15.5 percent to 389,000 tonnes. HKIA handled 60,000 passengers and 10,375 flights, marking year-on-year increases of 89.0 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively.

The surge in cargo volume last month was mainly attributed to a double-digit growth in imports. Despite a decline in transshipments due to a shortage of belly capacity on passenger flights, overall cargo throughput saw an increase during the month, most significantly in traffic to and from Southeast Asia and India.

Passenger traffic in April remained significantly below the pre-pandemic level in 2019. The year-on-year surge recorded was mainly due to the low base for comparison.

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For the first four months of the year, HKIA handled 237,000 passengers and 40,865 flights, representing year-on-year decreases of 97.1 percent and 43.9 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, cargo handled during the period rose 13.6 percent to 1.5 million tonnes.

On a 12-month rolling basis, passenger traffic and flight movements fell by 98.4 percent and 63.4 percent to 864,000 and 128,710, respectively, whilst cargo throughput recorded 4.6 million tonnes, an increase of 0.3 percent year on year.

In an industry recognition, HKIA received the Silver Award in the “Commendation Scheme on Source Separation of Commercial and Industrial Waste 2019/20” organised by the Environmental Protection Department, for its outstanding effort in recycling and waste reduction.

Peter Lee, General Manager, Sustainability of the AA said, “We are honoured to receive this award, which demonstrates our endeavours with business partners and the wider community to reduce HKIA’s environmental footprint. We will continue to implement best practices regarding environmental management in order to reach our goal of making HKIA one of the world’s greenest airports.”