Air freight throughput rose by 1.3 percent year-on-year, building on the growth seen in the previous month.

However, with the first quarter of the year having shown negative figures, the January - May period overall registered a decline of 1.5 percent in comparison to the same five months of 2011.

The results included airports in the Middle East, whose traffic rose by 2 percent in May. Over the course of the first five months of the year throughput increased by 3.4 percent.

Hong Kong topped the list of Asia-Pacific airports, processing over 330,000 tonnes of freight in May. Shanghai Pudong ranked second with 214,000 tonnes handled, followed by Seoul Incheon, Dubai and Tokyo Narita.

ACI Asia-Pacific regional director Patti Chau remarked on the region’s resilience to global economic uncertainties in terms of cargo traffic.