The construction of the second terminal at Macau International Airport (MIA) has been put on hold due to lower-than-expected passenger traffic. Macau Post report.
As early as 2020, the Hong Kong government announced plans to convert part of the Taipa Ferry Terminal into an additional terminal for the airport. At that time, the government believed that it was necessary to increase the airport’s current annual passenger capacity of 10 million to 2 million.
Legislative Councillor Wong Kit-ching announced the change of plans yesterday after a discussion of public project investment at the Public Finance Committee. She said the “relatively slow” recovery of air travel in Hong Kong after the pandemic meant there was no need to build a second terminal at the moment.
[See more: New aviation law could connect Macao to the US, South America and Australia]
Macau’s airport handled just 5.15 million passengers last year, just over half the number it handled in 2019, the last full year before the coronavirus pandemic grounded most flights in and out of the city. However, traffic has surged in the first half of this year. Slightly increased – From January to June this year, Macau International Airport handled 3.73 million passengers.
Joshua Wong said the government currently expects passenger traffic to grow by 10% to 15% this year, with annual passenger traffic reaching a peak of 5.92 million.
Despite joint efforts by airport operators and the Macao Special Administrative Region Tourism Bureau to promote the return of air passengers, the pace of air passenger return remains slow. International tourist inflow and airlines and route supply.
[See more: Where can I fly to from Macao? Here’s a list of places you can reach directly]
Airport expansion Considered a priority project The reclamation project is still expected to start in the second half of this year and will expand the area for aircraft to taxi between the hangar, terminal and runway by 2029.
Joshua Wong said that the government will consider the feasibility of restarting the Terminal 2 project in the future.
[ad_2]
Source link
