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Hong Kong Airport reports Mar-2012 traffic highlights

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Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) set a new monthly record with 29,600 flight movements this March, which also represented 5.2% growth compared to March 2011. The previous record was set in December 2011 when the airport handled 29,300 movements. Year on year, passenger traffic grew 9% to 4.6 million, while cargo throughput saw a marginal decline of 0.4% to 368,000 tonnes.

The growth in passenger traffic in March was mainly driven by Hong Kong resident and visitor traffic, which registered increases of 20% and 8% respectively over the same month last year. Passenger traffic to/ from the Mainland and South East Asia performed particularly well.

The decline in cargo throughput last month was mainly attributed to the 4.5% year-on-year drop in imports. Exports registered growth of 3% while transshipments decreased by 3% compared to the same month last year. During the month, cargo throughput to/ from South East Asia outperformed other key regions.

Stanley Hui Hon-chung, Chief Executive Officer of Airport Authority Hong Kong, said he was pleased with HKIA's healthy growth figures in March. "In addition to the good growth in passenger traffic and flight movements, we have also seen an improvement in cargo performance despite economic uncertainty. Looking forward, we are confident about the outlook for air traffic performance at HKIA. With runway capacity at HKIA having increased to 63 flights per hour since late March, daily scheduled fights are close to 1,000 for the summer operating season. We believe passenger volume and flight movements are likely to sustain their growth trends, while cargo tonnage should continue to improve at a slower pace."

He added, "Apart from being the world's busiest cargo airport for the second consecutive year, HKIA has also become one of the world's 10 busiest passenger airports for the first time after handling about 54 million passengers last year. While we expect the number of passengers will further increase this year, we will continue to give our utmost effort in providing world-class service to passengers."

In the first quarter of 2012, passenger traffic registered a yearly 8% increase, reaching 13.6 million. Cargo volume declined 1.5% to 930,000 tonnes, while aircraft movements grew by 6.6% to 85,170 over the same period last year.

On a rolling 12-month basis, the airport handled 54.9 million passengers and 339,105 aircraft movements, representing year-on-year increases of 6.6% and 7.2% respectively. Cargo volume recorded a drop of 5.9% in the same period, amounting to 3.9 million tonnes.

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