Macau’s airport is likely to handle a third more flights daily in November than it did in October, with most of the increase serving mainland China cities, its operator has told GGRAsia.
November’s daily average is likely to be 40 flights, compared to 30 in October, said Macau International Airport Co Ltd, a body also known locally as CAM.
The outlook for the remainder of November could change depending on any further adjustments in travel policies involving Macau, arising from management of the Covid-19 pandemic, CAM noted to GGRAsia.
Currently, foreigners without Macau ID are barred from entering Macau, and passenger flights that have in recent times left Macau bound for international destinations have in some cases been used to repatriate non-resident workers whose contracts were not renewed amid the economic disruption of the pandemic.
Separately to the CAM data supplied to GGRAsia, the company’s marketing department director, Eric Fong Hio Kin, told local media at an event on Wednesday, that the airport had to date handled 1.06 million passenger trips this year. He added that the volume of inbound passengers from mainland China was greater than the outbound volume of local residents.
For full-year 2019, Macau International Airport had 9.60 million arriving and departing passengers, an all-time high.
As of mid-November this year, Macau’s average daily tourist visitor arrival tally via all forms of available transport surpassed 20,600, compared to a daily average of 19,000 in October. That is according to Maria Helena Senna de Fernandes, director of Macao Government Tourism Bureau, who mentioned the figure at a Wednesday meeting of the city’s Tourism Development Committee.
She added that daily hotel occupancy had ranged from 33 percent to 45 percent in the first week of November, compared to a daily average of 38.1 percent in October.
Regarding Macau’s recovering air transport volume, the airport operator told GGRAsia that November destinations were “roughly the same” as in October, based on applications submitted so far by the respective airlines.
October saw an aggregate of 21 destinations served, in either mainland China or Taiwan, not neighbouring countries, according to data provided by CAM.
Flight destinations during October included: the mainland cities of: Shanghai, served respectively by Air Macau, China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines and Spring Airlines; and Hangzhou, served by Air Macau and Xiamen Airlines.
Other mainland cities served in October were: Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, Xiamen, Taiyuan, Tianjin, Qingdao, Changzhou, Ningbo, Chongqing, Nanning, Jieyang, Zhengzhou, and Wenzhou; all via Air Macau.
The Chinese cities of Jinjiang and Fuzhou – both in Fujian province – were also among the October flight destinations, served by Xiamen Airlines. During that month, Air China had flights connecting Macau to Wuhan; and Shenzhen Airlines had flights connecting Macau to the Chinese city of Wuxi.
The other destination served during October was Taipei in Taiwan, via services run respectively by Air Macau, EVA Air and Starlux Airlines, according to CAM.
