Air Transport

Hong Kong airport's August passenger traffic grew 2.8% year-on-year to 4.3 million.

Cargo volume continued to decline, however, dropping 5.2% to 295,000 tonnes, says Hong Kong Airport. Air traffic movements fell 6.7% to 23,710.

"August performance is in line with the stabilisation trend we have noted in recent months," says Stanley Hui, CEO of the Airport Authority Hong Kong.

"Following double-digit drops in cargo throughput for eight consecutive months from November 2008, the 5.2% decrease in August shows further improvement from July's 8.3% decline. However, the narrowed drop should be viewed against the background that both passenger and cargo volumes started to show first signs of slowdown in August 2008."

He adds that although August saw mild growth in passenger traffic, the airport's outlook is cautious as the "global economy and aviation are only in the very early stage of a slow and possibly volatile recovery."