Macau International Airport (pictured), the city’s only air hub, is likely to have handled an aggregate of 1.76 million passenger throughputs for the first quarter of this year. If the forecast has been realised, it will mark year-on-year growth of 1.3 times, and a circa 75-percent recovery in volume relative to the same quarter in 2019, i.e., the period before the Covid-19 pandemic.
That is according to a Wednesday press statement from the facility’s operator Macau International Airport Co Ltd, also known by it Portuguese acronym CAM.
In terms of flight movements, the first-quarter recovery rate versus the same period of 2019, is put at 76 percent, translating to 14,000 flight movements.
Currently, a majority of the Macau airport’s flight routes serve destinations on the Chinese mainland.
CAM aimed to introduce a greater number either of “direct” international services, or flights “connecting” to “medium and long-haul” services setting off from other places, so that Macau’s air hub could expand its “global reach”, stated the company.
It noted: “China Southern Airlines will commence operations on the Beijing Daxing-Macau route from April 1, 2024, facilitating passenger transfers from Macau via Beijing Daxing [International Airport] to Russia, with checked-through luggage service.”
CAM has also noted that Korean Air planned to launch services from Macau to the South Korean capital Seoul in July this year. Such services would then offer the possibility of linking to Korean Air’s network serving destinations in Europe and the United States.
