On the sidelines of a cocktail reception celebrating the Macau International Airport (MIA)’s 20th anniversary, Simon Chan, President of the Macau Civil Aviation Authority, commended the recently announced plans to transform Macau’s airport infrastructure. The impending scheme, which would enable the airport to accommodate long-haul flights, includes an extension to the passenger building and is expected to increase the maximum transit capacity from six million visitors to seven and a half million. “It will be positive to Macau because what we will have is more [flight] slots. It depends on the commercial development. Maybe we will have more passengers for the regions. Mainly tourists, maybe some of them cargo”, he said, cited by TDM.
Mr Chan added that the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (Delta Bridge) would have a significant impact on Macau’s economy, allowing more passengers and cargo to transit through the SAR.
Acting Chief Executive Sonia Chan stated at the celebration that the MIA was a fundamental transport hub for Macau’s international accessibility.
When the Macau International Airport was inaugurated in 1995, it catered mainly to the Taiwanese market, due to the absence of direct flights between mainland China and Taiwan. After mainland China resumed flights to Taiwan in 2008, MIA began to revise the airport’s focus.
