The increase was led by an encouraging performance on the Macao-Taiwan and Macao-Shanghai routes, as well as new air links betweenMacao and two tourist cities in Malaysia and regular flights between Macao and Singapore, airport authorities said.

A monthly record of 388,060 passengers at the airport was created in July, when students and some employees took vacation.

A majority of the air travelers were tourists to the special administrative region (SAR) and Taiwan passengers shuttling between Taiwan and China's mainland via Macao.

Meanwhile, cargoes handled last year also rocketed 47 percent from 2001 to 111,300 tons, thanks to the robust demand and added flights.

The airport, built on a patch of land reclaimed from the sea ata cost of more than one billion US dollars, consists of a runway, two bridge approaches and a parking area. Its business has kept expanding since it was put into operation seven years ago.

(People's Daily January 9, 2003)