The Macau International Airport handled a total of 4 million passengers in the first half of 2018, up 20 percent from the prior-year period, said the airport operator Macau International Airport Co Ltd, a body known locally as CAM.
The airport operator said that the passenger traffic in the six months to June 30 was boosted by three “major markets”: mainland China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, which recorded year-on-year growth of, respectively, 37 percent, 4 percent and 16 percent.
In June, the Macau airport handled more than 660,000 passengers, a tally that represented a 19 percent year-on-year increase. The growth last month was mainly attributable to the increase in the number of visitors travelling to and from mainland China and Southeast Asia, CAM stated in its Thursday release.
The airport operator said it expects passenger traffic “to grow steadily in the second half of 2018″ with new airlines launching routes to and from Macau. In a January press release, CAM said it expected the airport to handle 7.38 million passengers in full-year 2018.
Chinese carrier Hainan Airlines is expected to launch this month “two weekly flights” from Macau to Sanya, according to CAM’s release. Cambodia Airways is due to establish also in July regular flight services from Macau to Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, added the release.
In the first half of 2018, three new airlines started flying to Macau. They included: Philippines-registered Royal Air Charter Service, Lithuanian charter carrier Small Planet Airlines and Russian company Royal Flight Airlines launched routes to Macau. Royal Flight Airlines launched in May a weekly scheduled flight service between Macau and Moscow, the airport operator noted.
