Macau International Airport, mainly a short-haul hub, is “actively working with airlines to expand routes from Macau and transit to Europe, the United States and other regions,” said the facility’s operator in a written announcement.
Such efforts included provision of a “one-ticket-through-baggage-check service,” for those heading beyond Asia-Pacific destinations.
The effort was “in order to cooperate with the tourism development direction of the Macau Special Administrative Region Government,” stated Macau International Airport Co Ltd – also known as CAM – in a Wednesday statement.
Macau has a policy aim of increasing the volume and proportion of overseas visitors to its tourism market, and to boost the number and scale of shows and concerts that the city hosts.
The airport operator added that the hub “continues to expand” its work in the aviation markets of Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, aiming at providing passengers to and from Macau with “more travel options,” and in order to “attract more international tourists to travel in Macau”.
CAM said that during the current quarter it had been planning expansion of international routes, including a Laos-Macau service.
Average passenger throughput and flight movements per day went up about a quarter year-on-year during October Golden Week relative to the 2023 holiday, according to the update.
During October 1 to 7 inclusive, a Chinese mainland holiday encompassing National Day at the start of the month, the airport handled 144,000 passengers and 1,202 movements of aircraft, or daily circa 20,000 passengers and 171 flight movements. That represented year-on-year increases respectively of circa 27 percent and 24 percent from the 2023 holiday season, said CAM.
Relative to the pre-pandemic trading year of 2019 and its October Golden Week, the recovery rate in the two indicators was about 82 percent and 77 percent, added the company.
