A total of 3.5 million people arrived at or departed from Macao by air in the period, many of them being tourists to the special administrative region (SAR) and Taiwan passengers shuttling between Taiwan and China's mainland via Macao.

In October alone, the airport handled 372,700 passengers, up 13.9 percent on an annual basis, thanks to a good number of tourists from the country's inland visiting the SAR during the week-long National Day holiday beginning Oct. 1.

Airport sources said cargoes handled leapt 13 percent to 30,600 tons from January to October on the back of a number of air carriers adding service. The figure for last month hit a monthly record in the history -- soaring 33.7 percent to 11,600 tons.

Air cargo transport demand is expected to pick up continuously, since loading and unloading business is now too busy at the ports on the US west coast, a key gateway for Macao's exports into their biggest market, after a strike by longshore men there.

The Macao airport saw 84,900 aircraft taking off and landing in the first ten months of the year, up 45 percent.

The airport, with an investment of more than one billion US dollars, was built on a patch of land reclaimed from the sea, consisting of a runway, two bridge approaches and a parking area. It was put into operation in November 1995.

(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2002)