For two months in a row, air cargo throughput at Hong Kong International Airport set new records, Hong Kong Airport Authority said Sunday.

October figure grew by 14.6 percent over last year to 299,000 tons, posing a 7 percent increase over the previous record of 280,000 tons achieved in September.

Robust cargo growth was driven by continued strong demand for goods from North America, Europe and the Chinese mainland.

Exports (loaded cargo) rose to 195,000 tons, a gain of 16.1 percent over last year, while imports (unloaded cargo) grew by 11.8 percent to 104,000 tons. Both are all-time-high monthly records.

Riding on the strong demand for air cargo services, total aircraft movements rose by 12.2 percent to 21,035, marking October the busiest month ever for aircraft movements at Hong Kong International Airport.

Passenger traffic continued to soar with a total of 3,354,000 passing through the airport in October, representing an increase of 17.1 percent compared with the same period last year.

For five successive months, passenger, cargo and aircraft movements all achieved double-digit growth figures over a rolling 12-month period. Cargo throughput for the past 12 months rose to 3,042,000, growing 17.3 percent over the corresponding period of last year. The passenger number rose to 36,407,000, or a 32.8 percent growth.

There were 233,640 aircraft movements recorded for the previous 12 months, a growth of 25.5 percent.