In 2015, its 20th year, the Macau International Airport (MIA) received a record of 5.8 million passengers and 30,000 tons of cargo. It currently has 30 airlines serving a total of 44 destinations.
It has been a long journey since its opening on December 8, 1995. Six years earlier the Portuguese government had given a 25-year franchise contract to Macau International Airport Co. Ltd (CAM) to own and manage the airport.
Many were skeptical as to whether it would survive at all – it was the smallest of five airports in the Pearl River Delta within a 200-km radius. It was competing for passengers with international airports in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, as well as the one in neighboring Zhuhai. What was the need for another one?
The data from last year has proved the skeptics wrong. Passenger traffic saw an increase of 6.4 percent over 2014, while cargo volume rose 4.5 percent to 30,000 tons. In 2015, there were approximately 2,986 takeoffs and landings of business aviation, an increase of 7.3 percent, and more than 55,000 aircraft movements, a 6 percent increase compared to 2014.
Ma Iao Hang, chairman of the Board of Directors of CAM, said that with the increase in passengers, freight and flights, the airport would very soon reach its original design capacity of six million people. “So we plan to expand the passenger terminal to raise the capacity to nine-ten million passengers,” he said.
“It was an excellent performance in 2015, in a less than ideal environment,” Ma said during a recent company meeting. For 2016, CAM’s target is to reach 5.95 million passengers, 30,659 tones of cargo and 57,500 flight movements.
In 2015, passengers from Southeast and North Asia accounted for 40 per cent, followed by those from the Mainland (33 percent) and Taiwan (27 percent).
In 2015, MIA attracted nine new airlines to the region – China Southern, Hainan Airlines, Beijing Capital Airlines, Jeju Air, MEGA Maldives Airlines, Bassaka Air, Asia Atlantic Airlines, Siam Air Transport and T’Way Air, resulting in the operation of eight new routes from MIA. The new routes include Haikou and Wenzhou in China; Ho Chi Minh City and Haiphong in Vietnam; Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia as well as Palau and Pattaya in Thailand.
In the first quarter of last year, the Administration of Airports Limited (ADA) had conducted a survey asking passengers their opinions of the airport, which found the passengers were satisfied with the equipment and level of service. MIA will improve its services, with a revamp of the duty-free shop and sales counters and recharge facilities for smart phones. The company is also overlaying the surface of the runway, as part of its regular repair and maintenance after 20 years of usage. The resurfacing work will take place at night so as not to impact the operations of the airport. Currently, the single runway is sufficient to accommodate more planes.
Last September, Macau Civil Aviation Authority president Simon Chan said that his office had completed an update of the “Macau International Airport Master Plan,” which was initially released in 2011, covering the airport’s development needs for 20 years.
“The airport will complete the construction of its hangars soon. The construction of an extension of the airport’s north side passenger terminal building started this month and is expected to be completed by the end of 2016. We will discuss with the airport company and airline companies how to improve the situation of delays due to adverse weather,” he said. MDT/Macauhub
charter flights to moscow announced
The Macau International Airport Company (CAM) has announced the commencement of charter flights between the MSAR and the capital city of Russia. The company issued a statement explaining that the Moscow route is currently slated for a launch on Tuesday, May 17. They added that the new charter flight will help to improve the airport’s connectivity in terms of long-haul routes. The single-way flight time will amount to around 10 hours.
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