Airport operator anticipates slower passenger growth for 2016

With the objective of handling some 5.95 million passengers for this year, airport operator Macau International Airport Co. Ltd. (CAM) is actually expecting a slower year-on-year passenger growth rate after the city saw a much milder rise in Mainland Chinese visitors arriving by plane last year. In a statement released to media, CAM said they are targeting handling 5.95 million passengers this year, which would represent a 2 per cent year-on-year growth compared to the 5.83 million passengers handled last year. The growth of passenger volume the airport operator saw last year was 6.4 per cent year-on-year. The statement was issued following a meeting of CAM’s board, which also sought to see aircraft movements total 57,500 and freight volume achieve 30,659 tonnes for this year. Currently, 30 airlines operate 44 flight routes to and from the city, according to CAM. That figure follows an addition of 9 new airlines that launched their services here last year with 8 new destinations. The modest target the airport operator has set for passenger volume growth this year follows the city seeing a significantly slower increase in Mainland Chinese visitors travelling here by plane in the first eleven months last year, and comprising 55 per cent of the overall inbound passengers handled by the local airport. In the January to November period last year, the airport registered 1.02 million visitor arrivals, representing a growth rate of only 2.3 percent year-on-year – much lower than the 17 per cent increase seen in the same period the previous year, according to data from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). During the period, the airport also saw a reduction in visitors from most Southeast Asian and European countries, census data reveals.