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HONG KONG - Hong Kong International Airport registered positive growth in air cargo tonnage for the seventh month in a row, up 38 percent year-on-year, to 354,000 tons in April, Hong Kong's Information Services Department said Monday.
The strong cargo growth was mainly attributed to the continued recovery in the airport's key export markets, in particular North America and Europe. Exports recorded an increase of 57 percent, while imports showed a year-on-year growth of 30 percent, and transshipments at 10 percent.
Air-traffic movements also increased 2.7 percent over last April, to 24,725 while passenger volume declined 1.5 percent to approximately 4.2 million at the same period.
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He noted that the exceptionally strong Easter holiday traffic last year had created a high base for comparison, then Iceland's volcanic eruption and the Black Outbound Travel Alert for Bangkok had a negative impact.
"As a result, there was a slight decline in passenger throughput last month. However, growth momentum for passenger traffic remains strong and I am confident we will continue to see an improvement in these numbers over the coming months," said him.
Hong Kong resident travel registered a year-on-year decline of 4 percent, and transfer/transit traffic dropped by 9 percent. Visitor numbers showed an increase of 8 percent, driven by traffic to and from South East Asia and North Asia.
From January to April this year, the airport handled 16.2 million passengers, representing year-on-year growth of 4.5 percent, 1.3 million tons of cargo, up 35.1 percent, and 94,825 aircraft movements, up 1.6 percent.