A continued decline in exports saw cargo at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) fall 6.6% in November to 343,000 tonnes.

Despite this drop in cargo, passenger traffic at the gateway continued on a trend of steady growth during the month, with HKIA handling 4.3 million passengers ­- 4.7% more than a year earlier.

According to the airport, the growth in passenger volume was driven primarily by visitor traffic, which registered an increase of 7% over the same month last year.

Meanwhile, the cargo decline was mainly attributed to the 10% year-on-year drop in exports.

Imports decreased by 3% while transshipments registered a growth of just 0.1%.

In particular, Europe and North America experienced double-digit year-on-year declines in overall cargo traffic during the month.

Stanley Hui Hon-chung, CEO of Airport Authority Hong Kong, said: "Despite the recent drop in cargo throughput due to the slowdown in imports and exports, I am confident that our long-term prospects remain promising as the Mainland's economy continues to boom and Hong Kong also remains on a steady growth path."

Over the first 11 months of the year, HKIA recorded 5.7% and 9.2% year-on-year growth in passenger volume and aircraft movements, reaching 49.1 million and 304,450 respectively.

Airfreight handling declined 4.6% to 3.6 million tonnes during the same period.

On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger volume and aircraft movements rose by 5.8% and 9.6% yearly, to 53.6 million and 332,190 respectively. Cargo volume registered a decrease of 3.4% to 4 million tonnes.

Hui Hon-chung added: "The growth momentum in passenger traffic underlines the need to develop and enhance our facilities.

"Recently we embarked on the Midfield development, and phase 1 of the project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2015, providing a total of 20 aircraft stands. When phase 1 is completed, HKIA will be able to handle an additional 10 million passengers per annum."