Hong Kong International Airport in China set two new records last month after serving 6.5 million passengers, a 3.3% increase over July 2016, while flight movements climbed 3% to 36,270.
Hong Kong’s number of domestic and transfer travelers both grew by 5% year-on-year in July, driving the airport’s traffic growth. Japan continued to be the major contributor to the growth, while Europe and North America also recorded significant increases.
Coinciding with an improvement in global trade, exports continued to lead the strong growth in cargo throughput. Exports experienced 15% growth while transshipments also rose, by 10%, during the month. Among key trading regions, Europe recorded the most significant increase.
In the first seven months of 2017, passenger throughput and flight movements increased by 1.6% to 42.2 million and 1.2% to 242,840, respectively. On a rolling 12-month basis, Hong Kong International handled 71 million passengers and 414,415 flight movements, recording year-on-year increases of 0.9% and 0.5%.
The airport also launched its online shopping platform HKairport Shop in July. The platform allows passengers to shop online and collect their purchases from the three concierges at Hong Kong International Airport as soon as three hours after purchase, or have their purchases delivered to local addresses.
Cissy Chan, executive director of commercial at Airport Authority Hong Kong, the airport operator, said, “The brand new HKairport Shop offers a convenient, one-stop shopping solution for passengers, making every excursion pleasant and hassle free.
“Passengers can even make orders on their way to the airport, helping them to be free from carrying bags with them along the way. Currently, the platform offers a selection of packaged food items and airport exclusives. A wider variety of offers will soon be available in the coming months.”