Macau’s land reclamation project to expand its airport, which aims to raise its annual passenger-handling capacity to up to 15 million, has finally got off the ground, marked by a groundbreaking ceremony on the airport’s apron on Friday.
The expansion project, with land reclamation covering 129 hectares (1.29 square kilometres), is now expected to be completed in 2030, raising the airport’s total area to 325 hectares.
The central government finally greenlighted the local airport’s reclamation project in October 2022, after the local government first requested Beijing’s permission for reclamation in 2017.
The local government formally granted local airport operator CAM the necessary land concession early last month enabling the reclamation project to go ahead.
The project will reclaim land in the coastal waters between the airport’s runway and its two current taxiways to expand its apron, creating new space for setting up more aircraft stands and various other new ancillary facilities.
Airport operator CAM, Macau International Airport Company Limited, held its airport reclamation and expansion project’s groundbreaking ceremony on Friday morning, which was attended by Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng and other prominent guests such as Central People’s Government Liaison Office in Macau Director Zheng Xincong, Foreign Ministry Commissioner Liu Xianfa, Macau Legislative Assembly (AL) President Kou Hoi In, Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário, Macau Civil Aviation Authority (AACM) President Pun Wa Kin, Ma Iao Hang, the chairman of CAM’s board of directors, and Simon Chan Weng Hong, the chairman of CAM’s executive committee.
Delivering a speech during the groundbreaking ceremony, Ma said that the airport’s expansion project will be carried out in several phases, with a reclamation area amounting to 129 hectares, adding that the entire project is expected to be completed in 2030, raising the airport’s total area to 325 hectares, providing ample space for the airport’s future development, Ma said.
Ma also said that after the completion of the reclamation project, the airport’s passenger-handling capacity, in the first phase, will increase to 13 million per year.
During the ceremony, Chan delivered a presentation about the airport’s reclamation and expansion project.
Chan said that the reclamation project will expand the airport’s apron and build two new taxiways, which are expected to be completed in 2028, after which the two current taxiways will be demolished.
Chan noted that new aircraft stands and various other new ancillary facilities will be built on the newly expanded apron.
Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Chan noted that the airport’s expansion project will ultimately enable its annual passenger-handling capacity to increase to up to 15 million.
Chan said that after the reclamation and expansion project’s scheduled completion in 2030, the airport will not immediately make use of all the newly available space generated by the reclamation, because of which, he said, the airport’s annual passenger-handling capacity is expected to increase to 13 million in the first phase after the reclamation and expansion project’s completion, only after which the airport will build more facilities on the newly available space in due course in line with its business development and Macau’s economic development, which will ultimately raise its annual passenger-handling capacity to up to 15 million.
Chan noted that the airport’s current annual passenger-handling capacity stands at 10 million.
The airport’s designed maximum capacity had been six million passengers per year since it started operating in November 1995, before its passenger terminal building was expanded in 2018 when the maximum capacity was raised to 7.8 million passengers per year. The terminal building underwent another expansion in 2020 and it was completed in 2022, raising the capacity to 10 million.
Guests such as Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng (centre), Central People’s Government Liaison Office in Macau Director Zheng Xincong (seventh from left), Foreign Ministry Commissioner Liu Xianfa (seventh from right), Macau Legislative Assembly (AL) President Kou Hoi In (sixth from left), Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário (sixth from right), Macau Civil Aviation Authority (AACM) President Pun Wa Kin (fourth from right), Ma Iao Hang (fifth from left), the chairman of CAM’s board of directors, and Simon Chan Weng Hong (third from right), the chairman of CAM’s executive committee, symbolically break ground on the airport’s reclamation and expansion project on Friday. – Photos: Tony Wong
Simon Chan Weng Hong, the chairman of airport operator CAM’s executive committee, speaks to reporters after Friday’s groundbreaking ceremony. Chan had headed the Macau Civil Aviation Authority (AACM) since 2006 until March last year.
An Air China Airbus A330 aircraft arrives at the local airport on Friday from Hangzhou. The wide-body aeroplane has been leased to Air Macau since earlier this year for operating its regular passenger flights between Macau and Hangzhou and between Macau and Beijing.
