Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that licensed motor vehicles totalled 239,255 as at end-September 2019, a slight increase of 0.2% year-on-year; light automobiles (108,549) and heavy motorcycles (99,050) rose by 0.9% and 2.2% respectively, whereas light motorcycles (24,283) dropped by 8.8%. New registration of motor vehicles in September went up by 8.9% year-on-year to 1,189, with heavy motorcycles (759) rising by 21.4% while light automobiles (383) falling by 5.9%. In the first three quarters of 2019, new registration of motor vehicles decreased by 15.9% year-on-year to 9,155. Number of traffic accidents rose by 22.5% year-on-year to 1,323 in September, involving 433 victims and 1 of them was killed. In the first three quarters, there were 10,238 traffic accidents and 3,379 traffic casualties.
Cross-border vehicular traffic in September increased by 14.5% year-on-year to 444,626 trips. Vehicular trips passing through the Checkpoint of Cotai (137,920) rose by 13.8%, whereas those going through the Border Gate (262,749) inched down by 0.4%; besides, there were 40,715 trips crossing the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. In the first three quarters of 2019, cross-border vehicular traffic went up by 8.9% year-on-year to 3,962,188 trips. Arrivals and departures of commercial flights at the Macau International Airport totalled 5,972 trips in September, a growth of 20.9% year-on-year; trips to and from mainland China (2,560) and Taiwan (1,048) showed respective increases of 29.4% and 10.3%. Arrivals and departures of commercial flights in the first nine months rose by 19.7% year-on-year to 54,725 trips.
Gross weight of containerized cargo by land in September surged by 36.7% year-on-year to 2,213 tonnes, of which cargo passing through the Checkpoint of Cotai amounted to 1,954 tonnes, an increase of 25.9%. Meanwhile, gross weight of port containerized cargo decreased by 16.5% to 12,558 tonnes, with cargo being handled at the Inner Harbour (6,515 tonnes) and the Ká-Hó Harbour (6,043 tonnes) dropping by 18.9% and 13.6% respectively year-on-year. In the first three quarters, gross weight of containerized cargo by land expanded by 29.7% year-on-year to 14,408 tonnes, while that of port containerized cargo fell by 10.7% to 111,445 tonnes.
The Macau International Airport handled 3,246 tonnes of air cargo in September, an increase of 4.4% year-on-year; gross weight of inward cargo (599 tonnes) and outward cargo (2,195 tonnes) grew by 7.3% and 11.8% respectively, while that of transit cargo (453 tonnes) decreased by 22.9%. In the first nine months of 2019, air cargo rose by 1.0% year-on-year to 28,373 tonnes.
As at the end of September 2019, there were 118,171 fixed-line telephone subscribers and 2,141,849 mobile phone subscribers, down by 6.5% and 7.2% respectively year-on-year. Internet subscribers increased by 7.6% to 574,915 and the duration of internet usage in September expanded by 30.2% to 137 million hours. Total duration of usage stood at 1.17 billion hours in the first three quarters of 2019, a growth of 26.6% year-on-year.
