Hong Kong Airport pax up 15%, cargo down 13% in Feb-2013

Hong Kong International Airport reported (17-Mar-2013) a 14.5% year-on-year increase in passenger numbers to 4.7 million and a 4.1% increase in aircraft movements to 27,665 in Feb-2013. Cargo volume fell 13.3% to 248,000 tonnes. The overall growth in passenger numbers in Jan-2013 and Feb-2013 was "mainly driven by visitor traffic, which registered growth of 5%," with passenger traffic to/from Southeast Asia, mainland China and Taiwan performing particularly well. Meanwhile, the airport attributed the overall growth of cargo volume in the first two months to an 11% increase in transhipments. Cargo throughput to/from Taiwan and North America outperformed other key regions. Commenting on the airport's performance, Airport Authority Hong Kong CEO Stanley Hui said "It is encouraging to see solid and healthy traffic growth in all three categories at the beginning of 2013. Preliminary figures show that on 16 February, during the Chinese New Year peak travel period, we handled a record-breaking daily flow of more than 198,000 passengers." [more - original PR]