Hong Kong airport traffic growth slows
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The recent surge in passenger traffic at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) slowed significantly in April 2016, despite the full opening of the hub’s new Midfield Concourse.
According to the latest data from Hong Kong’s Airport Authority (AA), HKIA handled 5.9 million passengers in April, marking an increase of just 1.4% year-on-year. And flight movements at the airport declined 0.1% to 33,685. HKIA’s transit traffic continued to show strong growth however, rising 8% year-on-year.
But the overall result reflects a marked slowdown from the 7.5% jump in passenger traffic experienced in the first quarter of 2016. The monthly results can be partially attributed to the timing if the Easter holidays, but the combined passenger total for March and April 2016 still only showed year-on-year growth of 3%.
For the first four months of 2016, HKIA has now handled 23.5m passengers and 136,590 flight movements – up 5.9% and 3.0% respectively compared to the same period last year.
Three more connections will be added to HKIA in the coming weeks, with Hong Kong Airlines introducing direct twice-weekly services to Kuching, Cathay Pacific launching four weekly flights to Madrid, and HK Express operating twice weekly direct flights to Ishigaki, in Japan’s Okinawa prefecture.
The airport fully opened its Midfield Concourse in late March 2016. The new facility will increase HKIA’s overall capacity by approximately 10m passengers per year.
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