Macau International Airport

Macau International Airport (IATA: MFM, ICAO: VMMC) (Portuguese:Aeroporto Internacional de Macau) is an international airport in the special administrative region of Macau, situated at the eastern end of Taipa island and neighbouring waters which opened for commercial operations on 9 November 1995, during Portuguese administration of the region.

Since then the airport has been a common transfer point for people traveling between the Mainland and Taiwan, as well as a passenger hub for destinations in mainland China and Southeast Asia. During 2006, the airport handled 5 million passengers and 220,000 tonnes of cargo. In 2017 the number of passengers had increased to 7,165,803, which is more than the 6 million passengers per year the terminal was designed for.

Facilities

Terminal

The airport's designed capacity is 6,000,000 passengers per year, with processing capacity of up to 2,000 passengers per hour. The airport does not have a night curfew. There are 24 parking spaces for aircraft in the apron, with 5 jetways. There are 10 gates. As in Hong Kong, Macau has its own immigration policies and is a separate customs territory from mainland China. All travellers, including those to mainland China and Hong Kong, need to go through the immigration and customs inspections of international flights.

Runway and aprons

The airport's runway was built on a strip of reclaimed land in the sea, adjacent to Taipa Island, where the main terminal and air traffic control facilities are located, unlike in Hong Kong, where Chek Lap Kok has them all. The runway is connected to the apron by two causeways. Runway 34 is ILS CAT II equipped. Navigational and radio aids are located at either end of the runway. Despite its small area, the airport is capable of handling Boeing 747s and Antonov 124s, which forms a vital freight link between local manufacturers and overseas markets. Its catering facility can produce up to 10,000 meals per day.

Other tenants

Other tenants of the airport are the Macau Customs Service (Independent department under Secretariat for Security of Macau), the Macau Immigration Department/Services (Public Security Police Force of Macau),the Macau Business Aviation Centre, Servair Macau and Menzies Macau.

Redevelopment

Master Plan

Since 2016, Macau's government has been developing a Master Plan for the airport's expansion. To be done in 3 phases, the most visible sections of it broke ground in 2020.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Macau International Airport" and modified on May 5, 2020 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.