Hong Kong forecasts return to air cargo growth in 2010

THE chief executive officer of the Airport Authority Hong Kong Stanley Hui expects Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) traffic to growth in 2010 in light of improvements in the global economy and continued strong growth on mainland China.

Cross-the-board improvement in the fourth quarter, compared with the sickly first three, he said, shows business is flowing back to Hong Kong. He also noted that airlines have also been increasing or restoring flight frequencies that had been suspended.

HKIA's newly released full-year 2009 results show cargo volume amounted to 3.35 million tonnes, a decrease of 7.7 per cent compared to the previous year, while passenger traffic declined five per cent to 46.1 million, and aircraft movements fell by 7.2 per cent to 279,505.

"We saw contractions in all three air traffic categories, which were due in large part to the global financial crisis that began in the latter part of 2008. The outbreak of H1N1 and the gradual increase in the number of cross-strait direct flights also had negative effects on HKIA," said Mr Hui.

"In addition, volatile fuel prices, yield erosion from reduced demand in front-end business traffic, and low cargo yields caused airlines to reduce frequencies and suspend services, which continued to result in financial losses," he said.

HKIA's cargo throughput experienced year on year declines of 22.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2009, 17.1 per cent in the second quarter and 5.9 per cent in the third quarter. However, the downwards spiral came to a halt in the fourth quarter which registered an increase of 16.2 per cent in air cargo volume that helped narrow the decrease for the full year.

Passenger traffic also experienced a smaller year-on-year decline of 0.2 per cent in the fourth quarter compared to the first three quarters of last year when numbers fell 7.1 per cent, 9.2 per cent and 3.5 per cent in the first, second and third quarters respectively.

Aircraft movements showed a similar trend after falling 5.1 per cent in the last quarter, after seeing drops of 6.7 per cent, 8.8 per cent and 8.2 per cent over the first three quarters of the year.

In December 2009, cargo throughput rose to 330,000 tonnes, representing an increase of 35.5 per cent from a year earlier. "Recovery in foreign trade between China and western economies, as well as the need to replenish inventories in the US and European markets, quickly led to surge in demand for air cargo transportation," the HKIA statement said.

During the same month, passenger traffic increased by 3.4 per cent year on year to 4.18 million, while the number of air traffic movements reached 24,225, down 2.1 per cent.

(Source: www.schednet.com)