Macau reveals airport expansion plans

Authorities have announced plans to expand the airport to serve up to 15 million passengers by 2037.

Macau.- The Civil Aviation Authority has revealed an expansion plan for the city’s international airport forecasting 11 million passengers a year from 2024 to 2026, and 15 million between 2031 and 2037.

The authority says the need for expansion is urgent as airport operations had reached maximum capacity prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It expects the city to see demand for more new routes to mainland China and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as for the launch of medium- and long-haul flights.

Under The Macau International Airport Master Plan, the airport site would be extended south over the current construction waste area beside it and north to a new urban reclaimed zone, known as plot E2.

A public consultation on environmental impact will be carried out.

Macau airport served 9.6 million passengers in 2019, an all-time record before the dramatic fall in flights due to the global pandemic this year.

According to data from the city’s Statistics and Census Service, for the first nine months of this year, visitor arrivals at Macau’s airport reached only 346,929, down nearly 88 per cent year-on-year.