Macao Airport Handles Over 10 Million PassengersHuang Yu-Fu from Taibei was rather amazed to be presented a large bundle of flowers as soon as he stepped down a plane at the Macao International Airport.Mr. Huang was the luckiest on Tuesday as he became the 10 millionth passenger the airport had handled since it was put into operation at the end of 1995. Following Huang Yu-Fu, another nine passengers coming by the same NX 611 Air Macao plane received bouquets of fresh flowers. "I'm so happy I witnessed a new milestone of the Macao airport, " 44-year-old Huang said. He is engaged in foreign trade in Taibei and commuted between Macao and Taibei frequently. "I didn't expect to be so lucky at all," he said, obviously embarrassed by flashlights and the inquiring from reporters. After they had completed their airport formalities, ten passengers were invited to attend a welcoming ceremony. Ao Man Long, secretary for transport and public works of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government, awarded a 10- millionth-passenger certificate to Huang Yu-Fu. Huang was also given round-trip tickets from Macao to Los Angeles or San Francisco, two-night hotel accommodation and one- day city tour in Macao, 2,500 patacas (312.5 U.S. dollars) of voucher and Permanent VIP Card for a duty-free shop in Macao, and a bottle of champagne. Most of other lucky passengers were given plane tickets offered by the airline companies using the Macao International Airport. The airport saw booming passenger traffic in the first half of this year. The number of 1.53 million passengers rose by 22 percent over the same period of 1999. At present, 12 airline companies operate a total 488 regular flights per week to and fro between Macao and 26 cities around the world, including 15 cities in the inland areas of China. In addition, two Thailand airline companies provide chartered plane services via the Macao airport. |
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