Debt payment pushes airport into $380m loss
THE Macau International Airport (CAM) made a net loss of 400 million patacas (about HK$380 million) last year due to amortisations and other financial obligations, according to CAM president Joao Manuel de Sousa Moreira.
However, Mr Moreira said the airport company's operating results had been positive last year, resulting in an operating profit of about 100 million patacas.
He also said airport passenger movement reached 2.2 million last year, up 13 per cent on 1997, while cargo throughput totalled 65,000 tonnes, a year-on-year growth of 43 per cent.
CAM made a net loss of 395 million patacas in 1997, according to official figures released last year.
The airport, on Taipa island, functions mainly as a transit place for semi-direct flights between destinations on the mainland and Taiwan.
Portugal's national airline TAP-Air Portugal suspended flights between Lisbon and Macau late last year, claiming the route's operating costs had been too expensive. The airport does not have any scheduled intercontinental passenger flights.
Harald Bruning in Macau
