HKIA passenger traffic up 10% to 5.94m in November

Traffic to and from Mainland China and Japan grew significantly.

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) recorded significant growth across all three air traffic figures in November with passenger volume growing 10% YoY to 5.94 million passengers; flight movements rising 7% YoY to 34,900 and cargo throughput increasing 6.9% YoY to 466,000 tonnes.

Passenger growth was driven by high traffic to and from Southeast Asia, Mainland China and Japan compared to a lower yearly base of comparison as the launch of the air traffic management system last year temporarily reduced available air timeslots. 

Transshipments and exports, on the other hand, boosted cargo throughput in November after registering 10% and 8% YoY growth respectively. Amongst key trading regions, traffic to and from North America, India and Europe increased significantly. 

Over the first 11 months of 2017, HKIA has welcomed a total of 66.5 million passengers, and handled 383,995 flight movements, marking increases of 3.3% YoY and 2.2% YoY, respectively. Cargo throughput rose 9.6% YoY to 4.48 million tonnes.

“As the year draws to an end, we expect to see a travel peak at HKIA during the Christmas and New Year holidays,” said Airport Operations of Airport Authority Hong Kong Executive Director C K Ng, who added that 112 additional flights will be arranged by the airlines to cope with the anticipated surge in year-end travel demand.

Photo from Edwin Leong, CC BY-SA 2.0