Passenger throughput during the Lunar New Year period created new daily record highs at two immigration checkpoints.

A record for Hong Kong International Airport was hit on February 13 with more than 108,000 passengers passing through, while the Macau Ferry Terminal hit a record on February 12 with more than 67,000 passengers, the Immigration Department said today.

During the period, February 4 to 17, more than 7.98 million people travelled in and out of Hong Kong through land, sea and air checkpoints, up 15% on the same period last year.

The total passenger throughput at land-boundary checkpoints was more than 5.77 million, up 17% on the 4.93 million passengers recorded during the same period last year. Of these, 3.8 million, a daily average of 272,000, passed through Lo Wu control point.

There were more than 619,000 Mainland visitors during the festive period, up 12%. Among them 327,000 individual visitors entered Hong Kong, representing a daily average of more than 23,000, up 57%.

To cope with the large rise in passengers, the department redeployed 228 officers to reinforce boundary and sea control points. Passenger traffic was smooth and orderly and the majority of passengers were able to clear immigration within 30 minutes.