Rival aviation hubs Singapore Changi Airport and Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) reported contrasting airfreight movements for March.
Changi Airport handled 2.5 percent more airfreight last month, with 167,200 tonnes of cargo processed, compared to March 2012.
On the other hand, cargo throughput at HKIA decreased slightly in March to 360,000 tonnes, down by 2.2 percent from the same month last year.
The decline in volume was mainly due to the 7 percent year-on-year drop in exports, Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) said. Imports fell slightly while transshipments rose by 7 percent.
For the first three months of the year, airfreight movements at Changi Airport posted a 2.2 percent decline, with 434,000 tonnes handled, compared to the corresponding quarter a year ago.
For the same period, HKIA’s cargo volume increased 1.3 percent to 942,000 tonnes, and on a rolling 12-month basis, the airport handled 4.04 million tonnes of cargo, representing a yearly increase of 2.9 percent.
Meanwhile, HKIA’s second cargo terminal handler, Asia Airfreight Terminal (AAT), saw its tonnage throughput in March 2013 inch up to 68,387 tonnes for an increase of 4 percent compared to the same period last year.
Export cargo registered 47,565 tonnes, increasing by 1 percent. Import volume was 19,617 tonnes, up 8 percent year-on-year. Transshipments surged 121 percent to 1,205 tonnes.
For the first three months of 2013, the cumulative export tonnage at AAT rose to 117,471 tonnes, 3 percent higher against the same period last year . Total import tonnage registered 53,221 tonnes, a year-on-year growth of 0.1 percent. The cumulative transshipment traffic surged 109 percent to 3,242 tonnes.
“The total tonnage of 173,933 tonnes for the first three months of 2013 is a new record high for AAT,” said Chan Yee Lin, the company’s general manager. “We hope this is a sign of things to come for the remaining part of the year.”
