Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), the world's busiest cargo hub, recorded double-digit growth in air cargo at the end of 2023, marking the fourth consecutive month of growth.

Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) released the air traffic figures in Hong Kong for last month and said cargo throughput in December increased by 19.3% year-on-year to 418,000 tonnes.

Last month also saw a 33.4% increase in exports.

Month-on-month, this is also slightly higher than the 417,000 tonnes of cargo handled by the airport in November.

"Traffic to and from key trading regions in North America, the Middle East and Europe saw the most substantial increases," AAHK said in a statement.

For the whole year, HKIA handled total cargo throughput of 4.3 million tonnes, recording an annual growth of 3.2%.

In terms of passenger numbers, HKIA said air traffic continued to recover as passenger numbers and flight movements both reached new post-pandemic heights in December.

During the year, HKIA handled 40 million passengers and 276,000 flight movements, representing increases of around 600% and 100% respectively compared to 2022. 

For December alone, the airport passenger volume increased 1.7 times to 4.3 million year-on-year. Daily passenger volume recovered to 80% of the pre-pandemic level during the Christmas peak.

Flight movements in December rose year on year by 89% to 30,000, exceeding 80% of the pre-pandemic level.

"Passenger traffic at HKIA is expected to fully recover to the pre-pandemic level by the end of 2024," AAHK said.