Hong Kong International Airport handled 3.6 million passengers and 317,000 tonnes of cargo in September, down 4.7% and 7.5% compared with same period last year, the Airport Authority says.

Air traffic movements for the month also dropped 0.4%, to 24,570.

The reduction in passenger traffic came mostly from visitor traffic while travel by Hong Kong residents and transfer/transit passenger numbers decreased only slightly. The decline in cargo traffic was across the board, including import, export and transshipment.

Authority Chief Executive Officer Stanley Hui said the steep decline in traffic volumes in both passenger and air cargo clearly reflected a troubled global economy as a result of the financial tsunami, which has affected all countries.

The US and Europe, the biggest trading partners with Hong Kong and China, saw a significant drop in air cargo traffic to and from Hong Kong in the month, he said.

The recent National Day Golden Week holiday brought fewer visitors to Hong Kong by air this year than 2007, showing a continuing decline in traffic between Hong Kong and the Mainland.

Expansion plans likely to be put on hold

Mr Hui expects airlines to further trim their operation or put on hold their expansion plans.

Air traffic figures for the first nine months of this year recorded mild growth over the same period in 2007. Passenger volume rose 3.7% to 36.7 million, while cargo throughput and air traffic movements grew 3% and 3.1% to 2.8 million tonnes and 225,715 movements.

During the 12 months ended September 30, the airport served 49.1 million passengers, shipped 3.8 million tonnes of cargo and saw 302,225 aircraft movements, up 4.9%, 3.9% and 3.8% over the corresponding period last year.