Local airport passenger volume surged 20 pct in Q1

In the first quarter of 2016, passenger traffic volume at the Macau International Airport (MIA) amounted to more than 1.6 million, with an increase of 20 per cent year-on-year, according to a statement issued yesterday by airport operator Macau International Airport Co. Ltd. (CAM).
Also in the first three months of the year, flight movements totalled 14,000, an increase of 7 per cent compared to the same period last year, according to CAM. This represents daily average traffic at the international airport of 18,000 passengers and 160 flight movements.
The local airport operator added that over the four-day Easter holidays MIA processed over 80,000 passengers, a 24 per cent increase compared to the corresponding period of 2015.
On March 28, Air Macau launched its new Macau-Fukuoka route. The service enriches the routes currently going to Japan, destined for Tokyo and Osaka. CAM says that due to the continuous increase in routes and load factor, Southeast Asia, Mainland China and China Taiwan recorded increases of 25 per cent, 8 per cent and 31 per cent in passenger volume, respectively, compared to the same period of last year.
According to CAM, looking ahead, a Vietnam airline is planning to set up and operate a route from Nha Trang, a coastal resort city in southern Vietnam, to Macau. ‘With the new business partners joining the market, it is expected to bring more passengers to Macau and maintain the trend of growth,’ CAM’s Tuesday statement reads.