Air Transport

Hong Kong International Airport in September posted a 3.5 percent fall in passenger and 4.3 percent drop in cargo traffic mainly due to continued falls in traffic from North America and Taiwan.

Passenger numbers fell 3.5 percent in September to 3.5 million and cargo throughput dropped 4.3 percent to 304,000t, says HKIA.

"The fall in passenger volume was largely due to weak visitor traffic, particularly from markets like Taiwan and North America," it says.

Hong Kong has been adversely affected by this year's opening of scheduled non-stop flights between Taiwan and mainland China which means there is no longer a need for people to stopover in Hong Kong.

Airport Authority of Hong Kong CEO Stanley Hui says the year-on-year falls of 3.5 percent and 4.3 percent "indicates that the contractions continue to narrow".

He says since July one passenger and six freighter airlines have resumed operations to Hong Kong.