Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd. handled a total of 1,653,938 tonnes of cargo in 2016, an increase of 1.6% compared to 2015.

“From a disappointing start, 2016 shaped up to be a very satisfactory year for Hactl and its airline customers,” said Mark Whitehead, chief executive of Hactl. “The best results showed in the second half, and are hopefully indicative of a more settled picture for global air cargo that will continue into 2017. Particularly gratifying is the continuing growth of our ramp-handling business. We ascribe this both to the attraction of Hactl’s unique ability to provide combined terminal and ramp handling in Hong Kong, and to our recent investment in streamlining through the use of mobile computing; this has enhanced productivity and service standards.”

According to Hactl, transhipments performed most strongly, having grown 29.6% year-on-year. Mail, courier and express traffic grew 8.4% and exports grew 2.1%. Imports declined 8.3%.

The company’s SuperTerminal 1 set a new weekly record when it handled 41,926 tonnes of cargo from November 28 to December 4, 2016.

The ramp-handling business also set new all-time daily, weekly and monthly records.

Hactl handled 101 freighters on November 23, breaking the previous record of 98 which was set 19 days earlier.

From November 28 to December 4, the company handled 628 freighters, beating the previous week’s record of 609.

Hactl handled 2,579 freighters in November 2016. The previous record of 2,242 was set in November 2015.

SuperTerminal 1 is the largest cargo facility at Hong Kong International Airport and is capable of handling 3.5 million tonnes per year.