Air Macao plans to increase the number of flights between Macao and Beijing to nine per week as ofAugust 23, an effort to meet growing air traffic demand on the route linking the booming Special Administrative Region (SAR) and Beijing.

The added flights will be returned ones every Friday and Sunday,airline sources said.

Gong Xiaozhuang, public relations manager of Air Macao, told Xinhua Thursday that the number of people travelling by air between Macao and Beijing has been rising after Macao returned to the motherland at the end of 1999.

"We foresee more profits on the busy route, so flights will be added," she said.

The air carrier, which was inaugurated in September 1994, launched maiden flights to Beijing and Shanghai in November 1995.

At present, Air Macao derives much of its business revenues from Taiwan passengers shuttling between Taiwan and China's mainland via Macao, due to lack of direct flights across the Taiwan Straits.

( Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2002)