GGRAsia – Macau daily June flights down 70pct: airport op

Macau daily June flights down 70pct: airport op

Jul 03, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Macau International Airport’s operator said the facility handled in June only five daily passenger flight movements on average, due to the ongoing impact of travel restrictions related with efforts to stem the Covid-19 pandemic. Such figure could however grow to at least ten daily flights in July, the company told GGRAsia. The forecast was based on the number of applications submitted by airlines, it added.

The average number of daily passenger flight movements in June was “about the same” as May but represented a 70-percent decline compared to the same period last year, said Macau International Airport Co Ltd, a body known locally as CAM.

According to information provided by CAM, six airlines were operating flights in June connecting the city to 12 destinations across mainland China, Taiwan as well as northeast and southeast Asia.

Those 12 destinations included: the mainland Chinese cities of Xiamen, Chengdu, Nanning and Beijing (all operated by Air Macau); Taipei, (operated by Air Macau, EVA Air and Starlux); Tokyo and Osaka in Japan (operated by Air Macau); Incheon of South Korea (operated by Air Macau); the cities of Sihanoukville (operated by Cambodia Airways and Lanmei Airlines) and Phnom Penh in Cambodia (operated by Cambodia Angkor Air); Manila in the Philippines (operated by Air Macau); and the Vietnamese city of Hanoi (operated by Air Macau).

The airport operator currently estimates that the facility would handle 10 to 12 daily passenger flight movements in July, judging from the applications made so far by airlines. But CAM stressed that its projections could change depending on any further adjustments in the immigration entry policies of Macau, as well as the final flight arrangements decided by the airlines.

The Macau airport has handled an aggregate of 939,968 passenger movements in the first six months of this year, of which over 837,000 passengers were recorded in January alone, the month before travel restrictions started to be introduced as part of efforts to contain the further spread of Covid-19. The monthly tally of passengers that the Macau airport handled since March has marked the lowest ever since the mid-1990s, according to data published on CAM’s official website.

In June, the airport handled 1,836 passenger movements, up compared with the previous two months, with fewer than 1,000 passenger movements recorded in April and May, respectively.