JOC Staff | Oct 22, 2012 12:50PM EDT
Hong Kong International Airport has confirmed the major rebound in air cargo volumes out of Asia last month.
Building on the 3 percent growth recorded in August when volumes reached 328,000 tons, the world’s largest cargo airport in terms of tonnage in 2011 handled 347,000 metric tons in September, up 6.8 percent year-over-year.
Airport Authority Hong Kong said recent growth was welcome respite from the consistent declines recorded since April 2011. “The increase was primarily due to a 7 percent year-over-year growth in exports,” AAHK said in a statement. “The strong rebound in cargo throughput is also consistent with the strong rebound in trade in September.
“During the month, cargo throughput to and from North America and Southeast Asia outperformed other key regions.”
Stanley Hui Hon-chung, chief executive of AAHK, said he was “optimistic” that the gains of the last two months could be sustained by cargo demand.
AAHK also said it had appointed John Chai Sung-veng as executive director, projects. Reporting to Hon-chung, the 30-year industry veteran will be responsible for planning, developing and implementing AAHK's numerous expansion projects designed to meet medium- and long-term demand growth.
These will cover projects such as the provision of additional aircraft parking stands and the addition of a third runway.
Chai has 33 years of civil service experience. He was promoted to director of the Civil Engineering and Development Department in 2005, a position he held until retirement in 2011.