The Hong Kong Airport Authority has announced that cargo throughput continued to drop in July, dragged by the capacity impact of the on-going effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), the world's busiest airfreight hub, saw cargo throughput last month declined by 7.3% to 372,000 tonnes compared to the same month last year although it shows a better performance compared to the 357,000 tonnes of throughput recorded in June.

HKIA handled 9,870 flight movements in July, representing a year-on-year decrease of 73.2%.

Southeast Asia, China, Europe led declines

The HK Airport Authority said cargo throughput to and from Southeast Asia, Mainland China and Europe experienced the most significant decreases.

"Transshipments remained low due to shortage of belly capacity on passenger flights. Yet, cargo throughput was relatively steady in comparison with the drop in passenger throughput," it said.

However, as the demand for air cargo services remained "relatively strong," it noted that the freighter movements recorded a year-on-year increase of 21%.

Exports and imports also increased by 7% and 4% respectively, compared to the same month last year.

Over the first seven months of the year, HKIA saw cargo throughput drop 9.7% drop to 2.4 million tonnes. On a 12-month rolling basis, cargo throughput fell 7.7% to 4.5 million tonnes while flight movements decreased by 36.2% to 273,940.