HKIA retail revenue up by 8.3%

Nicole Mezzasalma

Print Article E-Mail Article E-Mail Author

Retail revenue at Hong Kong International airport rose by 8.3% in the financial year ending March 31

Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) has revealed that retail revenue at Hong Kong International airport (HKIA) was up by 8.3% to HK$2.59bn ($334.1m) in the financial year ending March 31 compared with the previous year. AAHK attributed the good performance of the airport’s duty-free shops to “higher spending per passenger and the availability of additional retail space in terminal one”.

HKIA handled 47.7m passengers in the 12 months ending March 31, according to AAHK, a fall of 2.5% on the previous year. The airport operator’s total turnover for the financial year was up by 3.6% to HK$8.89bn ($1.15bn) while net profit increased by 13.9% to HK$2.59bn.

AAHK CEO Stanley Hui Hon-chung said: “Although the financial tsunami dealt a heavy blow to the global economy and the aviation industry, the airport authority managed to achieve a reasonably healthy financial performance for 2008/09 by implementing tight cost controls, improving productivity and revising the schedule of our short-term expansion plans. These measures, together with the relatively stronger traffic and earnings performance in the first half of the financial year, have helped to mitigate the negative impact of the economic downturn.”