The Airport Authority's revenue and profit attributable to equity shareholders was $4.53 billion and $1.358 billion in the six months ending September 30 - up 7.9% and 19.5% on the same period last year.

Traffic at Hong Kong International Airport saw moderate year-on-year growth for the first half of the fiscal year. Total passenger throughput rose 0.7% to 24.6 million, cargo volume grew 0.7% to 1.89 million tonnes, and air traffic movements rose 1.7% to 151,500.

The authority's chief executive officer Stanley Hui said the airport registered strong growth in traffic volume in the first four months of the period under review but the growth trend reversed in August when the global financial crisis started, so a good part of the interim results do not reflect the impact of the recent global economic downturn.

"The economic turmoil is taking a heavy toll across a range of sectors, including the aviation industry. Business and leisure travel, particularly the premium markets, continue to shrink. As the current economic environment is unlikely to improve soon, we expect traffic volumes at the airport to decline further," Mr Hui said.

Raymond Lai, executive director in finance and investment, said the authority is working to control expenditure and increase cost effectiveness.

"We hold a conservative outlook for full-year performance as we expect a continued decline in air traffic, which will inevitably affect our financial performance for the second half of 2008-09 and well into the next financial year," Mr Lai said, adding the authority is committed to completing improvement and growth projects, including the $4.5 billion terminal and airfield enhancement programme.