Korea's air cargo traffic dropped 1.9 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter of this year due to a decline in shipments of information technology (IT) products, the government said Tuesday.

The country's air cargo shipments came to 857,000 tons in the January-March period, compared with 874,000 tons a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.

The drop resulted mainly from decreased international air cargo volume, which slipped 2.9 percent on-year to 783,000 tons. Domestic air cargo gained 9.6 percent to 74,000 tons.

The ministry attributed the drop in international air cargo traffic to a fall in IT exports as local firms built more overseas facilities to produce mobile phones and TVs.

Incheon International Airport, the country's largest airport, handled 743,000 tons in the three-month period, down 3.8 percent from the same period a year earlier.

The ministry predicted air cargo traffic would maintain its downtrend in the second quarter on the slow economic recovery of South Korea's major trading partners such as China and the European Union. (Yonhap)