The airport handled 324,000 tonnes of cargo in October compared to 320,000 tonnes in October a year earlier.

But the introduction of direct flights between the mainland and Taiwan has been a drag on transshipments as well as visitor traffic at the airport.

Transshipments shrank 8 percent from last year, in part because of the diversion of cargo to direct flights.

Visitor numbers dropped 3.7 percent, of which transfer traffic fell 18 percent. This represents a more severe year-on-year decrease compared to September, when it was 11 percent.

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Only people from Taiwan visiting the Pearl River Delta must call in Hong Kong and "the rest can go to Shanghai or Xiamen," said Daniel Chan Po-ming, a senior investment strategist at DBS Bank (Hong Kong).

Still, Airport Authority chief executive Stanley Hui Hon-chung sees signs of stabilization - particularly on the cargo side - in recent traffic figures. "The pre-Christmas stock replenishment has caused a sudden boom in air cargo in the region, resulting in higher rates and more extra freighter flights being operated," he said.

But Chan is less upbeat on this surge, given stagnant exports to the United States. He believes many American merchandizers did not place orders for Thanksgiving until the last moment, so manufacturers have had to shoulder extra material, labor and even transport costs because of the short notice.

"Many producers are dealing with big sellers such as Wal-Mart, which can transfer their costs," he noted.

Thanksgiving and Christmas account for up to 30 percent of Americans' annual consumption, Chan added. They are holidays when people buy both high- and low-end products as gifts.

The airport handled 38.2 million passengers and 2.7 million tonnes of cargo with 231,800 aircraft movements from January to October, representing yearly declines of 6.3 percent, 13.4 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively.