Hong Kong reported further deceleration in cargo volumes for October despite the start of the traditional peak season and the city's earlier reopening and easing of Covid-19 restrictions which would have helped build back capacity and flights in and out of the financial hub.

Hong Kong International Airport — the world's busiest airport — said for the month, cargo throughput declined year on year by 23.9% to 351,000 tonnes.

This is slightly better though than the cargo throughput of 341,000 tonnes in September which was 25% lower year-on-year. The airport already reported a 21.0% drop in August, and a 17.0% year-on-year decline in July.

The Airport Authority of Hong Kong said cargo traffic to and from North America registered the most significant decrease.

Flight movements also declined by 10.2% to 12,575 —  although slightly better than the 11,665 seen in September.

Economic uncertainties, geopolitical tensions weigh on cargo

"Cargo volume continued to be affected by global economic uncertainties, on-going geopolitical tensions and disruptions to global supply chains," AAHK said in a statement.

It added that for the period, exports and imports decreased by 26.0% and 29.0% respectively, compared to the same month last year. 

In the first 10 months of the year, cargo volume and flight movements dropped 14.1% and 5.3% to 3.5 million tonnes and 109,270, respectively.

On a 12-month rolling basis, HKIA handled 4.5 million tonnes of cargo and 138,650 flight movements, also representing decrease of 10.0% and 1.4%.

Cissy Chan, executive director, commercial of AAHK, noted that the airport will "spare no efforts" in working with the air cargo community to offer the best service with a view to maintaining HKIA's position as the airport of choice for cargo delivery.

Meanwhile, AAHK said the airport handled 755,000 passengers in October, representing a surge of 447.9% over the same period last year. From the January to October period, the airport crossed 3 million passengers.

AAHK said the growth in passenger volumes was mainly driven by increases in both Hong Kong resident and visitor traffic due to the relaxation of local quarantine measures with passenger traffic to and from Southeast Asia experienced the most significant increase.