Air cargo volumes at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) continued to recover, with June showing a slightly better performance than the month prior, although volumes remained lower than a year ago.

HKIA — the world's busiest air cargo hub — saw air cargo throughput increase by 1.4% in June to 355,000 tonnes compared to the 350,000 tonnes recorded in May, which was at that time 4.0% lower compared to the same month in 2022. 

The cargo volume recovery could be seen with the monthly increases since April, when HKIA handled saw 347,000 tonnes of cargo. In March, the airport recorded 372,000 tonnes of air cargo throughput.

"Cargo volume continued to be impacted by global economic uncertainties," the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) said in a statement.

"Cargo throughput in June declined 2.2% year-on-year, with a 22.8% decline in imports," it added.

For June, flight movements were also up month-on-month by 0.7% to 22,365. 

AAHK noted that traffic to and from key trading regions in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Japan showed the most significant decreases.

Over the first half of the year, cargo volume declined by 5.4% year-on-year to 2.0 million tonnes.

On a 12-month rolling basis, HKIA handled 15.5% lower cargo throughput at 4.1 million tonnes, although flight movements rose by 35.5% to 195,365 as airlines continued to build back their networks.

The slowdown in air cargo volumes is in contrast with the continued recovery reported in the passenger segment.

AAHK said passenger traffic in June "remained on a steady course towards recovery," with the airport handling 3.3 million passengers last month. Over the first half of the year, the airport handled 16.5 million passengers representing increases of over 18 times over the same period in 2022.

On a 12-month rolling basis, passenger volume at HKIA soared year-on-year by more than 10 times to 21.4 million.

"Passenger traffic at HKIA has recovered to about 60% of pre-pandemic levels and saw a peak of over 127,000 passengers on June 25 — a record high after the pandemic. With the steady recovery of air traffic, we are pleased to welcome new airlines operating at HKIA and see that existing airlines add new flight routes," said Steven Yiu, executive director of Airport Operations of AAHK.

"HKIA is working closely with airlines and other business partners to welcome more passengers during the summer travel season and to reinforce the airport’s status as an international aviation hub," he added.