Airport records highest traffic volume last year

The Macau International Airport (MIA) achieved a record high volume of traffic  last year, with 7.16 million arriving and departing passengers amounting to an increase of 8 percent year-on-
year, the MIA said yesterday in a press release.

The airport handled over 58,000 aircraft movements last year, representing an increase of 2.8 percent. 

“It is the highest passenger traffic MIA has achieved in a year in its 22 years of operation, the airport stated, adding that the number of incoming and outgoing passengers equated to over 11 times the local population.

During Christmas and the New Year holiday, a total of 29 airlines were operating at MIA, connecting Macau to some 46 destinations covering the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia.

In 2017, the local airport added six new routes, including flights to Sihanoukville of Cambodia, Siem Reap (Cambodia), Jakarta (Indonesia) and Johor Bahru (Malaysia). It also launched a regular transit flight from Macau to Lisbon via Beijing.

Reviewing the achievements of last year, the MIA statement claims that five new airlines expanded their flights to Macau, namely, Lanmei Airlines, Indonesia Air Asia, Beijing Capital Airlines, JC Cambodia International Airlines and JSC Royal Flight Airlines.

In 2017, the Taiwan market for airline travel remained stable, while the Southeast Asia market and mainland China market increased by 10 percent and 15 percent respectively.  There was a growth of 32 percent in passengers choosing to fly with low-cost airlines.

The press release anticipates the targets for this year. Local airport management pledges to “fully develop a long-haul route, aiming to increase and change the current passenger market structure, thus attracting more international and local travelers flying to and from MIA.”

In addition, the airport intends to keep upgrading its hardware and software. A number of infrastructure projects are expected to be completed in 2018, including the north terminal building expansion project. Upon completion, the airport capacity will increase to 7.5 million passengers per year.