General and business aviation traffic (GA/BA) at Hong Kong International Airport soared 36.5 percent year-over-year last month, according to data from the Asian Business Aviation Association (AsBAA). The airport handled 695 non-revenue aircraft movements last month, up from 509 a year earlier.

Notably, GA/BA movements at the airport increased by 20.3 percent since the start of the fiscal year and 9.4 percent over the past 12 months. “The majority of the non-revenue flight traffic is contributed by the general aviation/business aviation movement. The year-on-year increase in GA/BA movements reflected an improved take-up of resources from the cancellation of the scheduled services,” an airport spokesperson told AIN.

“We are delighted to see this growth in Hong Kong following the improvements and lobbying efforts to improve the operational environment for business aviation at HKIA. Pushing for our fair share of slots has been a key priority for AsBAA since the lobbying efforts began in 2016,” an AsBAA spokesperson said.

In fact, AsBAA announced yesterday that it successfully lobbied for two additional GA/BA nighttime slots until at least October 7, for the time being bringing it to six slots for all aircraft types not currently exempted from the noise quota count pilot scheme. Four GA/BA slots are also available for non-exempt aircraft during the day.

However, Hong Kong Airport officials said non-revenue operations, which includes GA/BA, accounts for 1 to 2 percent of the total flight movements at the airport, stressing that priority for slots and parking space still goes to scheduled services. The two-runway airport is currently reaching its capacity of 68 aircraft movements per hour.