Hong Kong International Airport Passenger Figures Show Cargo Flights Still Making Up for Huge Drop in Passenger Flights Over Past Year

Hong Kong International Airport newly published statistics for May 2021 show that cargo is still making up for the bulk of flights into and out of the airport, as COVID19 protocols still severely limit the inflow of foreigners and returning Hong Kong residents from overseas. 

The small uptick in passenger volumes year over year for the month of May have some wondering if an exodus of sorts is underway, as many Hong Kong families have made plans and have left Hong Kong in the wake of developments over National Security and China's increased dominance in daily life here. 

While it is hard to parse the data to find out granular details about the intake out and output for the airport, it is likely that many more passengers are leaving Hong Kong than are coming in, and this would be the reason for a slight increase Month on Month and Year over Year in passenger numbers and flights, though nothing that breaks the considerable decline over the past year. 

HKIA booked 8, 680 "passenger flight movements" since April 2021, a 9.4% increase in movements, though that statistic comes with the proviso that transit and transfer passenger movements are counted twice when tabulating the numbers. 

There was a 4.6% drop year over year when comparing May 2021 to May 2020, a move from 4,680 passenger movemements last year to only 4,465 movements this year. 

There was an increase year over year in number of passengers, from May 2020 to 2021, a move of 57.7%, but still not enough to make up for a 12 months decrease in passenger numbers of -98.2%. 

Cargo flights, which are calculated by metric tonnes and number of flights, continued their pace of increases in tonnes shipped,  growing from 266,000 tonnes to 275,000 tonnes. However, there was a decrease in number of movements of about -3.9% year over year for the month of May. 

The HKIA has still not published the statistics for June, but a spokesperson for the airport in an email said that they hoped to have these details out by the end of the week. 

China watchers have taken new interest in such figures, as there have been a noticeable increase in Hong Kong families leaving Hong Kong permanently, for destinations such as the United Kingdom and the United States, according to media reports.