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Hong Kong's airport recorded its fourth consecutive month of overall air-cargo growth last month, with a jump in imports hinting that the recent upsurge in some of the world's economies may have started to reach the SAR.

Passenger numbers, however, showed only a marginal increase from the same month last year.

Exports again led the charge for air cargo, rising 18 per cent year on year for the month to 126,000 tonnes, according to the Airport Authority.

Japan, Taiwan and Europe were dominant export growth markets.

More important for domestic economic analysts was the apparent rebound of import cargo, which grew 6.4 per cent year on year to 87,000 tonnes, more than double the rate in January and February.

Air cargo is often accepted as a leading indicator of economic trends.

However, while the import growth would be taken as a positive sign, the authority had no specific data to indicate how much of the intake was destined for local consumers as opposed to goods in transit to the mainland.

On average, about 70 per cent of Chek Lap Kok airport throughput is linked to the Pearl River Delta, according to the authority.

'Air-cargo imports are one of the early figures economists use to detect trends, but we will have to wait for supporting import and export data to be confident of any recovery,' Airport Authority spokeswoman Wong Sau-ying said.

'It would normally take about three months of growth of this kind supported by other data to bear that out.'

A local freight forwarder said imports were fuelled by Guangdong manufacturers' insatiable appetite for raw materials. Textiles for clothing and computer parts for assembly were moving across the border with renewed vigour.

A European forwarder insisted it was still too early to start counting on an import-volume related bonus in his year-end pay cheque.

He said: 'It is great to see things moving again but I am still a bit wary about the import side of things.

'I am not 100 per cent sure that Hong Kong is on the verge of recovering to the levels of 2000 [the record season]. But there is definitely renewed confidence in our industry.'

Overall throughput at the airport for the month hit 213,000 tonnes, up 13 per cent year on year. First-quarter tonnage eclipsed the 530,000-tonne mark, about 11 per cent higher than last year.

This is noteworthy as levels set in the first quarter of last year are generally accepted to have been pre-recession.

The authority said passenger traffic grew 0.7 per cent last month to 2.94 million.

It attributed the marginal rise to a busy Easter long-weekend holiday at the end of the month, which saw a record for single-day aircraft movements at Chek Lap Kok.

By comparison, passenger throughput at the airport for the first two months of the year was 5.22 million, a 0.2 per cent gain on the same period a year earlier.

One aviation analyst said: 'We saw a lot of pent-up demand for air travel in the holiday period during January and February, with a strong demand for air travel through Chinese New Year.

'But even so, the growth was only marginal during those months. So the March result was not bad considering that it was the first 'normal' month of the year.'

He added that by the third and fourth quarters there should be a return to the normal growth patterns and traffic would spike up considerably.

'Of course, everyone wants to see strong growth, but it is not going to be a straight line up. At least it is growth and not further declines, which is good enough at this point in the recovery cycle.'

About 80,000 people are estimated to have passed through Chek Lap Kok on Good Friday, March 29, with a record 695 flights taking off and landing.



Air-cargo rise stirs hope