MIA welcomes six millionth traveler

Zhou Si Min (center) poses with airport officials

Macau International Airport (MIA) celebrated a record-breaking milestone yesterday when it welcomed its six millionth traveler from mainland China. 

The local airport has brought in a number of passengers equal to ten times the city’s population.

The lucky visitor, Zhou Si Min, is an art professor based in Beijing who regularly visits Macau to lecture at the Macao Polytechnic Institute.

Zhou received a Monopoly MIA Limited Edition and an Air Macau round-trip ticket departing Macau.

At a meeting with journalists yesterday, Eric Fong, the director of the Marketing Department of the Macau International Airport Company Limited (CAM,) said the North extension project of the Passenger Terminal Building is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2017.

When the project is concluded, the airport will be able to accommodate between 7.5 and 7.8 million passengers annually.

Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Fong said they would focus on developing long-haul charter services and on offering more flights to South and North East Asia.

“We already talked to our management company [and are] trying to optimize the aircraft, the landing and all [other] arrangements,” he told the press.

When questioned whether tourists flying to and from Taiwan would be affected by the halting of operations of Taiwanese carrier Trans-
Asia Airways in November, Fong said that Far Eastern Air Transport is set to commence flights from MIA today.

According to information released by the airport yesterday, three new routes were launched in 2016 linking Macau with Guiyang (mainland China), Fukuoka (Japan) and the Indonesian city of Manado.

From January to October this year, overall passenger volume increased by 14 percent year-on-year. The volume of passengers from mainland China increased by 2 percent, while that of Taiwan and Southeast Asia rose 18 percent and 22 percent, respectively.

Passenger travel with conventional and low-cost airlines surged 18 percent and 7 percent, respectively.