Cargo volumes at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) dropped 6.1% in September compared with a year earlier due to the continued slump in exports from the country.

According to the latest figures, the airport handled 6.1% less cargo during September - a total of 325,000 tonnes - which it attributed to the 10% year-on-year drop in exports.

Additionally, imports decreased 6% over the month and transshipments grew 5%, while Europe, North America and Taiwan experienced double-digit declines in overall cargo traffic.

However, passenger numbers at the gateway on the other hand continued to rise over the month by 5.4%, to hit 4.3 million, while flight movements were also up 6.1% to 27,695.

HKIA said that the growth in passenger traffic was mainly driven by visitor traffic which registered a yearly growth of 7%.

Elsewhere, in the first three quarters of 2011, passenger traffic recorded a yearly 5.8% increase, reaching 40.2 million, while flight movements surged 10.3% to 248,020.

Cargo volume dropped 3.9% to 2.9 million tonnes.

Over the past 12 months, the airport handled 53.1 million passengers and 329,705 aircraft movements, representing year-on-year increases of 6.5% and 11.2% respectively.