Macao's airport passengers drop 7% in 2008

The passenger movement of the Macao International Airport reached over 5 million in 2008, down by seven percent over the previous year, the Macao Daily Post reported on Wednesday.

The airport, the only one in Macao, also saw the number of final destination passengers grow 13 percent year-on-year to about3.8 million last year, while the number of transit passengers, most of whom came from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, dropped 39percent to 1.3 million, the daily said, quoting statistics from the facility's management company ADA.

In addition, the statistics also showed that the airport's cargo throughput decreased drastically by 44 percent year-on-year to just 100,767 tons last year, and the number of takeoffs and touchdowns dipped seven percent. Airmail also dropped 11 percent.

Being majority-owned by the Special Administrative Region government, the airport has a maximum annual passenger capacity of six million.