Hong Kong International Airport(HKIA) handled 3.4 million passenger trips and moved 198,000 tons of cargo in February, representing decreases of 13.7 percent and 19.7 percent from the same month of 2008 respectively. Year-on- year, aircraft movements declined 10.5 percent to 21,235, said the HKIA in a press released Sunday.

Both local resident and visitor traffic were weak during the month. The number of local travelers declined over 20 percent from February 2008, mainly because the Chinese New Year travel peak fell in January this year whereas the corresponding peak was in February last year. Visitor traffic also reported double-digit decreases.

On the cargo front, most of HKIA's major markets continued to record double-digit decreases during the month. However, as manufacturing activities started to resume after the Chinese New Year holidays, the magnitude of the declines was smaller compared to January.

Stanley Hui Hon-chung, CEO of the Airport Authority, said "Both February's statistics and the combined figures for the last two months show that air traffic volumes continue to suffer from the global economic downturn. It is unlikely that this downward trend will reverse in the short term when the world's major economies remain in recession,"

"While decline in the total cargo volumes of January and February was less severe than the previous months, it is too early to suggest that the air cargo market has stabilized." he added.

On a rolling 12-month basis, cargo throughput decreased 7.5 percent year-on-year to 3.5 million tons. While passenger volume dropped slightly by 1.0 percent to 48 million, air traffic movements rose marginally by 0.1 percent, to 298,190.