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Exports from Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) jumped 32.7 percent year-on-year in May, underlining a gradual pick-up in the sector. "We are witnessing recoveries in our major markets," David Pang, chief executive officer of the Hong Kong Airport Authority, said in a statement yesterday. The authority said the recovery in exports has been underway since December, and was most significant in Asian export markets such as Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, then spreading to North America and Europe. Cargo exports reached 114,000 tons in May. Total cargo throughput increased 25.1 percent to 199,000 tons. Passenger traffic rose 1.2 percent compared to last May largely due to the holidays. In the first four months, the total cargo throughout in the airport rose 13 percent year on year to 732,000 tons. Exports at another air cargo port, Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals (Hactl), also rose by 21.2 percent in the first four months. Air v.s. sea freight The expansion of air-cargo transport can help Hong Kong become the region's logistics hub and reduce the impact of falling sea transport, Dick Li, analyst from Goldman Sachs, told China Daily yesterday. "We see port cargo trade as the next 'sunset' industry in Hong Kong, but a dynamic air-cargo industry should provide a sufficient offset," Li said in a report. The charge of Hong Kong seaports is about 40 percent higher than in the Pearl River Delta, a factor which has eroded Hong Kong's franchise as an entrepot, Li said. Sea-freight turnover in Hong Kong has fallen at an average rate of 3.5 percent per year since 1997 while air freight grew about 10 percent per year in the same period. Hong Kong still holds an edge in air freight because "a competitive air-freight business requires a heavy flow of international passenger travel, which does not exist in Pearl River Delta airports", Li said. But he said Hong Kong's airports can co-operate with Pearl River Delta airports in the ways that Hong Kong airports deal with international freight and the other airports focus on domestic freight services. "The real competition for Hong Kong airports does not come from the Pearl River, but airports in Beijing and Shanghai," Li added. Li expected Hong Kong's total throughput to grow at 2.4 percent in 2002 and 8.4 percent in 2003 with air freight picking up at a faster pace.