Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) saw its cargo volume rise in February boosted by an increase in exports, the Airport Authority said.

In a statement, HKIA said cargo throughput increased by 23.3% last month to 310,000 tonnes, while freighter movements surged 36.8% to 4,615, up from 3,374 recorded during the same month last year.

Combining the figures for the first two months of this year, the hub saw cargo throughput mount by 17.9% to 719,000 tonnes.

Meanwhile, the airport handled 47,000 passengers and 8,475 flight movements, representing year-on-year decreases of 97.5% and 53.0%, respectively. The January-February performance, eliminating the effect of Chinese New Year falling in different months in 2020 and 2021, HKIA handled 118,000 passengers and 19,840 flight movements, reporting declines of 98.4% and 61.3%, respectively.

"The combined increase of cargo volume in January and February was largely driven by a surge in exports. Transshipments experienced a double-digit decline due to a shortage of belly capacity on passenger flights," HKIA said.

"The overall cargo to and from North America, the Middle East and Europe saw the most significant increase during the period," it added.

Passenger traffic remained weak in February as the COVID-19 pandemic persisted. During the first two months of the year, passenger traffic for Hong Kong residents, visitors, and transfer/transit passengers all dropped significantly compared to the same month last year.

On a 12-month rolling basis, cargo throughput fell 3.5% to 4.6 million tonnes.