Hong Kong ends 2016 with a cargo volume flourish and a 3.2% full year increase

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) looks set to retain top spot among global airfreight hubs as its 2016 throughput increased by 3.2% year on year to 4.52m tonnes.
The Asian super hub, which saw a double-digit cargo surge in December, is the latest to report a rise in volumes for 2016, although statistics for North American and the major Chinese hubs are still to be logged.
In 2015, Memphis International in the US was in second place to Hong Kong with nearly 4.3m tonnes, versus 4.38m tonnes for the Asian hub.
Latest figures for Memphis, home hub for FedEx, up to October, saw a 0.1% rise in tonnages, which suggests that it will remain below the Hong Kong final figure.
In Europe, Frankfurt saw volumes up 1.8% to 2.15m tonnes, following by a 2.5% rise at Amsterdam Schiphol to 1.66m tonnes and Heathrow was up 3% to 1.54m tonnes. By comparison, Taiwan’s Taipei airport saw volumes down by 6.1% to 1.9m tonnes.
Fred Lam, chief executive of Airport Authority Hong Kong, said: “We are delighted to see another record breaking year of growth, and we must thank our more than 73,000 colleagues of the airport community for their concerted efforts in achieving this remarkable accomplishment, which will further strengthen HKIA’s leading position as an international and regional aviation hub.
“During the past year, HKIA also achieved new daily records in flight movements and cargo volume, reaching 1,270 flight movements and handling over 16,700 tonnes of cargo.
In December 2016, cargo throughput climbed 11.3% over the same period in the previous year to 435,000 tonnes. 
The strong growth in December cargo throughput was largely driven by transshipments and exports, which registered 15% and 12% year-on-year growth, respectively. Amongst the key trading regions, traffic to / from Southeast Asia, North America and Europe increased most significantly in the month.
Concluded Lam: "To meet the medium and long-term growth demands of today’s aviation landscape, we are pushing forward a number of developments at HKIA, including the expansion of Terminal 1 and the Three-runway System.”