Macau (MNA) –Â “Different ministries provided comments on the plan. We will have to do some more studies taking the comments into consideration and adjust the master plan design a little bit,” Mr. Chan added.
The comments were made on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the 6th Macau Business Aviation Exhibition at the Macau International Airport.
In the beginning of this year, the Macau SAR stated it wanted to expand its International Airport’s capacity through three stages, with the ultimate goal to be capable of accommodating up to 15 million passengers, 58,000 tons of freight, and 107,000 aircraft movements by 2040.
The first phase of the expansion project includes land reclamation between the two existent taxiways in order to create more land for the expansion connecting the runaway artificial island and the apron, the parking and fueling area for aircrafts.
Currently, the CAM-Macau International Airport Company Ltd. is looking to expand the North passenger terminal in order to increase its total area from 45,000 square metres to 59,000 square metres, an expansion that was initially expected to be finished by mid-2017.
“When the North terminal expansion is finished, the airport will be able to handle 7.5 million passengers. We’re targeting 6.9 million or 7 million this year,” Mr. Chan told MNA.
During the whole year of 2016, the airport registered the highest passenger volume in 21 years, amounting to more than 6.6 million, a 14 per cent year-on-year increase, with this year poised to be record-breaking again, as the first nine months have already seen 5.2 million passengers use the facilities, up 5.2 per cent yearly.
The initial airport expansion master plan anticipated the number of passenger would reach some 7 million by 2019, 11 million by 2037, and 15 million by 2040.
“We already reached the maximum design capacity to receive passengers in regard to the terminal. For the remaining [area] of the airport, there is still room to improve. The passenger increase will be gradual and hopefully by the time when the level increases, we’ll have already started the expansion,” he added.
Mr. Chan further confirmed that the new business hangar terminal – also included in the first phase of the expansion – was delayed to next year.
