Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), the world’s top airfreight hub, saw cargo throughput in March drop 12.4% to 378,000 tonnes compared to the same month last year.
Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA) said that the airport handled 576,000 passengers and 12,115 flight movements in March 2020, representing year-on-year decreases of 91.0% and 67.0%, respectively.
On the cargo front, amongst the key trading regions, traffic to and from Southeast Asia and Europe decreased most significantly in March.
The decline in cargo throughput was mainly attributed to 42% decrease in transshipments. Exports was stable while imports grew slightly by 1% year-on-year.
AA said in a statement: “As countries and regions worldwide continued to impose immigration restrictions and implement quarantine measures, a sharp decline of passenger traffic was recorded in March.
“Locally, starting from 25 March, all transit and transfer services at HKIA have been suspended, and all non-Hong Kong residents coming from overseas countries and regions by plane are denied entry to Hong Kong.”
All these factors led to a very weak travel demand in March, and airlines have suspended more flights. Visitor traffic, which was impacted the most, experienced 97% year-on-year decrease. Transfer/ transit traffic and Hong Kong resident travel also declined by 91% and 83%, respectively.
Over the first quarter the year, HKIA handled 8.2m passengers and 63,345 flight movements, representing year-on-year decreases of 56.5% and 40.1%, respectively. Cargo throughput fell 10.9% to 988,000 tonnes compared to the same period last year.
On a 12-month rolling basis, passenger volume and flight movements respectively dropped 18.9% and 12.0% to 60.9m and 377,420. Cargo throughput decreased by 7.3% to 4.7m tonnes.
To support business partners and airport staff, the AA has introduced an array of relief measures since the COVID-19 outbreak, including rental concessions, reduction or waiver of fees, and a staff training allowance scheme, among others.
The latest round of AA’s relief measures was announced on 8 April, worth up to HK$2bn, providing further support to airlines and aviation support services operators through helping to ease their liquidity pressure.”
