Hong Kong’s first-half air passenger traffic up 11.7%: Financial Secretary Paul Chan

HONG KONG’S airport passenger traffic jumped 11.7 per cent on year in the first half, as the Asian financial hub hosted a variety of events and attracted more visitors, according to the city’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan. 

Hong Kong is consolidating and enhancing its status as an international aviation hub, he wrote in a blog on Sunday (Aug 16). In the first six months of 2026, the Hong Kong International Airport handled over 200,000 aircraft movements, up 4.4 per cent from a year earlier, while passenger traffic reached 32.8 million, Chan added. 

The number of visitors to the city reached 31.2 million in the first seven months of 2026, up 12 per cent on year, he wrote. The continuous influx has injected greater vitality into Hong Kong and brought more business opportunities, he added.

Chan wrote in his blog last week that Hong Kong expects more than 1.85 million visitors to attend over 100 events in the second half of the year, generating about HK$5.9 billion (US$752 million) in spending and HK$3.3 billion in economic value. BLOOMBERG