Cargo volumes through Hong Kong International Airport are set for a mini-boom in the closing weeks of the year, buoyed by extra pre-Christmas freighter flights. Mark Whitehead, Managing Director of Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals (HACTL), the largest cargo handler at Chek Lap Kok Airport, said the facility would see a “boomlet” in airfreight tonnage. Charter and scheduled airlines have booked space for an additional 35 freighter flights from early this month to the middle of next month. All will carry export cargo to a number of destinations including Tokyo, Moscow and cities in central Asia. Most of these flights will use Boeing 747s that can carry about 100 tons of freight. HACTL could handle more than 3,500 tons of extra freight by the time the flights end on December 11. By comparison, it handled an average of 4,100 tons of export cargo per day in September, while total volume, comprising exports, imports and transshipments, was 237,761 tons for the month, the highest monthly total since March. Japan’s Nippon Cargo Airlines plans to operate the most flights, with 16 additional departures to Tokyo’s Narita airport between November 1 and 30. Silk Way Airlines, which operates from Baku, Azerbaijan, will make 10 extra flights. There are also extra flights by Qatar Airways, Turkey’s ACT Airlines and Russian carriers Polet Airlines and Air Bridge Cargo. The additional tonnage comes as HACTL was already anticipating better-than-expected growth in cargo volumes after total throughput grew 0.7% year-on-year to more than two million tons in the first nine months of the year. Overall, cargo volume at Hong Kong International Airport rose 0.9% to 3.3 million tons in the first 10 months of this year, Airport Authority figures show. Chief Executive Stanley Hui, said: “Preliminary numbers on cargo throughput in November also suggest a welcome and strong rebound in the year-end peak months. We are cautiously optimistic about cargo performance for 2012 given the arrival of the holiday season,” the South China Morning Post reported.