March saw airport passenger traffic grow 6.5% to 4.2 million and cargo throughput surge 29.5% to 347,000 tonnes year-on-year, showing the continued recovery in the aviation sector, the Airport Authority says. Air traffic movements rose 2.5% to 24,370.

Visitor and Hong Kong resident traffic grew 11.1% and 9.4%, with traffic on routes to and from South East Asia, the Mainland and Japan performing particularly well.

Cargo imports, exports and transhipments increased 31%, 39% and 10%. Nearly all major trading markets showed double-digit growth in March. North America and Europe contributed significantly to export growth.

In the first quarter the airport handled 12 million passengers, 905,000 tonnes of cargo and 70,100 aircraft movements, up 6.7%, 34% and 1.2%. This was the first time since the 2008 financial turmoil all three traffic figures saw positive growth in the same quarter.

Authority Chief Executive Officer Stanley Hui said the good performance was due to the continuing recovery in the global economy and trade. He expressed optimism air traffic will soon return to pre-crisis levels if the existing trends continue.

To meet growing air services demand, the two airport runways' handling capacity has been raised from 58 to 59 movements an hour from March as planned for the summer operating season. The hourly movement capacity will be further increased in phases over the coming years, reaching 68 movements per hour by 2015.

On a rolling 12-month basis, the airport handled 3.6 million tonnes of cargo, up 4.5% over last year. Passenger volume slid 1.7% to 47 million and aircraft movements fell 5.4% to 280,325.