Hong Kongs largest air freight terminal has strong finish to solid year - Greg Knowler, Senior Asia Editor | Jan 26, 2015 8:28AM EST HONG KONG — Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd. (Hactl) ended a solid 2014 by recording its strongest quarter of the year as Asia’s air freight sector continued its robust recovery. The largest air freight terminal in Hong Kong handled 491,476 tons from October through December, up 4.9 percent on the same period of 2013, Hactl said in a statement. For the full year, Hactl’s total tonnage handled was up 8.7 percent at 1.8 million tonnes. Healthy demand saw the Hong Kong terminal following Shanghai Pudong International Airport Cargo Terminal Ltd. (Pactl), which recorded a record 1.45 million tons in 2014. “This is a very pleasing result, with good increases in all areas of our business,” said Hactl chief executive Mark Whitehead. “Transshipment once again showed exceptional growth, fuelled both by increased road feeder activity by our subsidiary Hacis, and the continuing underlying development of Hong Kong as Asia’s preferred regional hub.” Total exports in 2014 increased by 6.7 percent to 1 million tons and imports were up 10.3 percent to 498,338 tons, but the most impressive year-over-year growth came from the transshipment segment that was up 28.6 percent to 130,834 tons. Mail and express traffic grew 3.1 percent to 149,655 tons. The last quarter was also the best of the year for exports, which totalled 287,456 tons, up 4.2 percent compared to the same quarter in 2013. Imports reached 131,202 tons, an increase of 7.7 percent, while mail and express in the fourth quarter was down 2.2 percent to 41,558 tons. Transshipment in the quarter was 31,261 tons, up 11.1 year-over-year. Whitehead used the annual throughput announcement to lobby for Hong Kong’s third runway that is in the consultation stages and has faced opposition from environmentalists and other critics. “The ongoing strong growth of our business, based on our 100 airline customers, clearly demonstrates the need for Hong Kong’s third runway,” he said. “For Hong Kong to continue such impressive development and maintain its position as the world’s number one cargo hub, we must have the additional capacity necessary for airlines to realise their full potential.” Hactl has just completed its first full calendar year without Cathay Pacific, which moved out in 2013 to its own terminal next door and took 1.2 million tons of annual cargo along with it. Whitehead said the growth in tonnage was due to several factors. “We acquired several new customers in 2014; the increased volumes of many of our customers and a strong fourth quarter performance helped by the congestion at the U.S. West Coast seaports and the temporary shift of cargo from sea to air,” he said. Hactl remains Hong Kong’s largest cargo terminal with a design capacity of 3.5 million tons a year, a customer list of more than 100 scheduled passenger and all-cargo airlines and is served by more than 1,000 forwarders. This is the key to Hong Kong’s position as busiest cargo airport in the world. It sits in the middle of the region generating most of the world’s air cargo and offers connections to 180 global locations including 44 cities in China. Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific and its sister airline Dragonair carried 1.72 million tons of cargo during 2014, a 12 percent increase over the previous year as the strong second half performance continued into December. Traffic was driven by strong demand out of Hong Kong and mainland China, particularly on trans-Pacific routes, with solid shipments on the main intra-Asia lanes, said Mark Sutch, Cathay Pacific general manager cargo sales and marketing.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 00:14:17 +0000