Coronavirus: Hong Kong airport records its third worst month ever amid travel restrictions in February
- Year-on-year air traffic in February falls 68 per cent amid travel restrictions to curb the spread of virus
- The record was beaten only during the Sars outbreak in 2003
Data from the Civil Aviation Department showed 1.88 million passengers flew in and out of the city last month, down 68 per cent compared to February 2019. The record was only beaten by the period between April and June 2003 during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) crisis.
In April 2003, year-on-year air traffic fell by 69 per cent to 892,000, and by May some 556,000 people took flight, a reduction of four-fifths. In June 2003, the year-on-year air traffic fell by 56 per cent.
The latest provisional air traffic data saw the number of flight take-off and landing fall to 18,005, down 44.5 per cent year on year.
Amid an extended factory shutdown in mainland China after Lunar New Year, the airport – the world’s busiest cargo hub – also saw an 8.7 per cent reduction in the amount of cargo handled, at 246,000 tonnes.
