Studies on airport expansion almost complete

The report on the proposed expansion of the Macau International Airport is almost complete, Chan Weng Hong, president of the Civil Aviation Authority (AACM) announced yesterday.
The proposed expansion will be built upon reclaimed land. The studies have examined flight negotiations, the environment and flood prevention. The AACM head revealed that the bureau is coordinating with other government departments to fine-tune the report. It is expected to be complete by the end of this month.
When the report is ready, Chan said, it will be delivered to the Central Government as part of the application procedure.
Although Macau has been authorized by Beijing to govern 85 square kilometers of marine area, any land reclamation must be approved by the Central Government.
Moreover, the local government has announced that it will convert part of the Taipa Maritime Terminal into an auxiliary terminal for the airport. According to the plan, the auxiliary terminal will operate similar to the budget terminal in other airports.
For the time being, the government has announced that the auxiliary terminal will house low-cost carriers Scoot and Tigerair Taiwan.
On this project, Chan revealed yesterday that the design phase has concluded. The authority is now working on realizing the project. There will be slight adjustments, Chan said, due to the pandemic.
The conversion will take about a year, but for the time being there is no timetable. AL