June cargo boost for HKIA

June was another month of strong growth in air freight volume at Hong Kong International Airport.

Hong Kong has long been a bellwether for the air freight industry, and after two years of lackluster results at HKIA (reflected in the results of the industry as a whole), 2014 is looking very good.

At the halfway point in the year, HKIA’s total cargo handle is up 6.4% over 1H13, and we expect that when IATA and WorldACD publish their worldwide air freight summaries for the first half of the year, they will reflect the growth seen at Hong Kong.

For the month of June, HKIA reported cargo volume up 7.3% y-o-y to 361,000 tonnes. Export volume was up 7.6% to 230,000 tonnes, while import volume was up 6.8% to 131,000 tonnes. For the first half of 2014, HKIA’s handle was up 6.4% to 2.09 million tonnes.

Commenting on the June results, HKIA said: “The growth in cargo throughput last month was driven mainly by transshipments and exports, which were up 17% and 6% respectively from a year ago. During the month, cargo throughput to and from Mainland China and North America recorded the most significant growth, compared to other key regions.”