Airport to handle 5.5m passengers

The Macau International Airport will have handled 5.5 million passengers by the end of this year, according to its executive director, Jackson Tsui.
“Last year, we broke the five million passenger barrier and this year we are expecting between 5.4 and 5.5 million passengers,” Tsui said at a baptism ceremony for a new plane in the Air Macau fleet.
Until September, the total number of passengers at  Macau airport had reached a total of 4,078.938 people. Tsui explained the rise in passenger numbers was due both to the growing perception of the Special Administrative Region as a tourist destination and the influence of the low-cost airline sector.
“Many visitors who come to Macau consider Macau as a final destination and come to the city to gamble or to partake in cultural tourism. In the last nine months, we have witnessed a rise in these indicators and are forecasting growth in the region of five percent,” the airport operator said.
Flights from Taiwan operated by three companies account for about a third of passenger numbers with visitors arriving from mainland China accounting for another third. MDT/Lusa