Airport Authority Hong Kong reports air cargo traffic decline
20 / 08 / 2019
Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA), operator of Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), has revealed that cargo throughput at the gateway fell by 7.3% year on year in July to 401,000 tonnes.
The fall in cargo throughput was the result of 12% declines in both imports and transhipment volumes.
Among Hong Kong’s key trading partners, cargo traffic to/from Southeast Asia and North America decreased most significantly.
Over the first seven months of the year, HKIA handled 2.7m tonnes of freight, a fall of 6.8% compared to the same period of last year.
And on a 12-month rolling basis, cargo throughput up to the end of July amounted to 5m tonnes, a decrease of 4.1% year on year.
Thus, July’s decline seems to be reflective of the wider sustained downturn in the global airfreight market.
This month (August) has seen protests at HKIA, with demonstrators clashing with police inside the airport. Though these clashes appear to have had a relatively limited effect on cargo throughput, there is a concern that any sustained problems at the gateway might affect HKIA’s well-deserved reputation as a cargo hub of global significance.
