The Macao International Airport will introduce its first allied Asia carrier, Malaysia's Air Asia to join its league by the end of May, the airport said Friday.

Under a cooperation agreement with the airport, Air Asia will launch two flight routes linking Macao with Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok by the end of May.

There will be one daily shuttle-flight on each of the two air lines at the initial stage of operation. The flight number will begradually added based on market feedback.

The low-cost airline is estimated to carry over 10 million passengers via the Macao airport in the next 10 years.

Founded in 1995, the Macao International Airport is small in scale, which handled a total of 2.9 million passengers last year. It is the only air traffic link for the Macao Special Administrative Region, which has a population of 440,000 and over 11 million annual tourist arrivals.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2004)