Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) has reported that its cargo throughput last month dropped 11.5% year-on-year to 382,000 tonnes.

"Amid global trade uncertainties, cargo volume continued to contract in August," the HK Airport Authority said in a statement.

Transshipments and imports during the period declined by 19% and 15% year-on-year as volumes for Southeast Asia and mainland China decreased "most significantly" among key trading regions, it added. 

Over the first eight months of the year, cargo throughput at the HKIA was at 3.08 million tonnes, down 7.4% compared to the same period last year.

On a 12-month rolling basis, cargo volume stood at 4.9 million tonnes, also showing a 5.3% year on year.

In terms of passengers, HKIA handled 6 million passengers and 35,655 air traffic movements in August 2019, representing year-on-year declines of 12.4% and 3.5% respectively.

The drop in passenger volume was mainly attributed to a decrease in visitor traffic from mainland China, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan.

"During the month, airport and flight operations were disrupted by public assemblies at the airport on a number of days," C K Ng, executive director, airport operations of the Airport Authority said, noting that there have been huge challenges to airport operations at times in the past few months.

In the eight months to August, HKIA's passenger volume reached 50.6 million with 285,495 air traffic movements, up 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. 

On a 12-month rolling basis, passenger volume and flight movements grew by 0.4% and 0.3% to 74.8 million and 428,290, respectively.