Blue skies ahead: The lifting of travel advisories is good news for the beleauguered airport - which saw passenger numbers tumble by nearly 80% in May, year on year. Cargo traffic rose, though, as passenger flights were cancelled.

The full impact of the SARS outbreak is evident in Hong Kong International Airport's passenger traffic figures for May: They tumbled 79.9% to 565,000, year on year. Passenger-flight cancellations resulted in a 59% fall in the number of movements of passenger aircraft. But the Airport Authority says the worst is now over.

The outlook for passenger traffic improved towards the end of the month when the World Health Organisation lifted its Hong Kong and Guangdong travel advisories on May 23.

The Airport Authority is already in full swing to revitalise the aviation industry. Within 48 hours of  the WHO's announcement, the Authority launched itself on the road to recovery from the SARS outbreak with the announcement of a multi-million-dollar revitalisation package to stimulate traffic and bring travellers back to Hong Kong.

AA's Chief Executive Officer, Dr David Pang, said: "We believe that the worst should now be over. With our revitalisation package and the recent improvement in the SARS situation in Hong Kong, all of us at HKIA are determined to win back our lost traffic."

Both passenger numbers and aircraft movements are expected to pick up gradually in June.

A decline in cargo from countries in South East Asia almost cancelled out the positive effect of substantial growth in air cargo to export markets such as the Mainland, Taiwan and Europe. Overall, cargo tonnage for May was up by 1.4% year-on-year at a total of 201,000 tonnes.

Cargo aircraft movements climbed 29.3% in response to the reduction of the cargo-handling capacity due to the cancellation of many passenger flights. Overall aircraft movements declined by 49.4% with a total of 8,605 movements recorded for the month.

Looking at the rolling 12-month period from June 2002 to May 2003, passenger throughput fell by 9.5% to 29.9 million. Cargo throughput rose by 16.6% over the same period to 2.56 million tonnes and cargo aircraft movements rose by 26.4%. Total aircraft movements for the period were up marginally, by 0.3%, at 198,605.

For traffic statistics (in PDF format), click here.