Macau airport still after long-haul routes to Europe, South America

Air Macau Macau airport

The Macau International Airport Company (CAM) still has an eye to developing long-haul flights to Europe and South America, but that will depend on securing the right partnerships.

Speaking at the company’s annual general assembly meeting yesterday, Chairman of the General Assembly Charles Lo said that CAM was still working toward developing more mid- and long-haul charter flights.

“Of course, I am talking about [routes to] Europe and South America,” he said in response to a media enquiry. “A lot of people go to Hong Kong [for intercontinental flights]. In the future, we want them to fly from Macau. […] Our target is regional cooperation, and then we will look at international cooperation, and then bring in larger planes. [In] the very near future, we are going to have charter flights to other parts of the world, other than Southeast Asia, Asia or Asia Pacific.”

The goal has long been on CAM’s agenda, but the company says airline operators are unwilling to open the routes, perhaps in part due to the MSAR’s proximity to the bigger and more international airport in Hong Kong.

In September last year, a representative of the company told the Times that CAM was interested in exploring “potential airlines to operate direct long-haul routes to Macau,” and that CAM “has been trying all [manner of] ways to introduce new airlines to MIA, [… but] an airline of a foreign country may have many considerations before entering into a new market.”

The comments came just a few months after Beijing Capital Airlines inaugurated its Lisbon-Beijing-Macau flight, marking the first semi-direct connection to the European capital since TAP Air Portugal’s short-lived experiment in the 1990s.

However, on the sidelines on the inauguration, the president of the Civil Aviation Authority of Macau, Simon Chan, suggested that that it might not be “realistic for Macau to open many direct long-distance flights in a short time” on account of what he described as the “characteristics of the market.”

Certainly, the Macau International Airport is to remain mostly regional in its scope for the years ahead. The airport currently connects the city to a total of 47 destinations, but the vast majority of passengers travel to and from mainland China (36 percent), Taiwan (22 percent) and Southeast Asia (42 percent).

In the medium term, CAM will not shy away from tapping into the considerably larger market residing within the Greater Bay Area, the company said yesterday, though this would only play out over the course of the next 10 to 15 years.

“The opening of the Hong Kong-
Zhuhai-Macau Bridge will make it easier for people to travel, provide more travel mode choices for passengers and bring [a] greater market to the civil aviation industry in the bay area,” a statement from the company read.

Asked whether increased demand from the Greater Bay Area would test the capacity of the local airport – even with the extension of the passenger terminal building – Lo declined to say if the company has made any forecasts in this respect and whether its current infrastructure will suffice.

The south extension of the passenger terminal building will add to the increased capacity following from the opening of the north extension earlier this year. Together they are expected to facilitate the travel of between nine and 10 million passengers per year, according to previous estimates from the company.

CAM said yesterday that the south extension of the passenger terminal building will be ready for public bidding in the second quarter of this year.

Cam board approves 2017 annual report

THE MACAU International Airport Company held its annual general assembly meeting yesterday, where the board gave its approval for the resolution of the 2017 annual report.

  –The Macau International Airport achieved a total income of MOP4.95 billion, marking an increase of 9.6 percent year-on-year;

  –The total income of CAM reached MOP1.4 billion, an increase of 5.5 percent compared with 2016;

  –The final net profit of CAM will be MOP354 million after tax and preferred dividends;

  –CAM has proposed new business targets for 2018, including 7.38 million in passenger traffic, 60,000 flight movements and 39,000 tons of cargo;

  –Starting from next month, CAM will complete the integration of its subsidiary, Administration of Airports Ltd., into its new airport operations department. All subordinate units, departments and staff of Administration of Airports will be absorbed by CAM.