Passenger throughput at the airport hit 3.8 million in February, up 7.3% on a year earlier driven by strong demand from Hong Kong people over the Lunar New Year, the Airport Authority says.

The authority's Chief Executive Officer Stanley Hui said many Hong Kong people took advantage of the buoyant local economy and treated themselves to a new year holiday. Southeast Asia, Europe and North America were popular destinations.

While the Lunar New Year is usually a quiet period for cargo, total throughput rose 5.1% to 247,000 tonnes. This was mainly attributable to growth in transshipments and imports. Air traffic movements grew 6.7% to 23,760.

Combining January and February's numbers, passenger throughput surged 10.3% over the same period last year, to 7.9 million, mainly because of robust visitor growth.

Cargo throughput climbed to 542,000 tonnes and air traffic movements 48,560, up 7.2% and 6%.

Mr Hui said the months ahead may be more challenging, especially if the US economy continues to slow down.

For the 12 months ended February 29, the airport handled 48.5 million passengers and 3.8 million tonnes of cargo, up 8.3% and 5.2% on a year earlier. Air traffic movements rose 5.6% to 298,205.