Macao's civil aviation industry has witnessed a rapid development in 2007, the Macao International Airport Company Limited (CAM), operator of the island city's only airport, said in a press statement released Wednesday.

Statistics showed that the Macao International Airport (MIA) recorded over 5 million total passenger volume and 53,386 flight movements in 2007, increasing by 10.5 percent and 4.6 percent respectively compared with 2006.

Experts said this will bring substantial benefits to other sectors of local economy, especially the tourism industry.

The company said that due to market positioning and proper cost controlling, its total operating revenue and gross profit last year grew by eight percent and 10.6 percent to 618 million patacas ($77 million) and 247 million patacas respectively, compared with 2006.

Under the goal of "transforming from a transit airport to a destination airport", five new airlines were introduced into Macao in 2007, which, along with the original 11 airlines, currently operate 31 flight routes both for cargo and passenger, according to the statement.

The company also said in its statement that to strengthen its function as destination airport and diversified the source of tourists, MIA has worked closely with all airlines to explore new markets, such as introducing low cost carriers, providing incentive schemes for airlines to open new routes and increase flight frequency.

The goal has partly came to fruition, as annual data showed that with the introduction of South East Asian low cost carriers operations to Macao in 2004, number of passengers from that region in 2007 has recorded a substantial increase of 54 percent over the previous year, which accounted for 24 percent of the total MIA passenger volume.

In addition, MIA has launched and completed some major infrastructure projects over the past five years, including five new stands in the south apron extension, new cargo logistic facilities, improvement work of the loading bridges, etc.

To sustain the rapid growth in the near future, CAM has said in the statement that it will continue to build partnerships with Macao's tourism industry to bring in more overseas tourists for market diversification, and to forge closer interaction and cooperation with the five neighboring airports in the Pearl River Delta Region.

Meanwhile, experts said the rapid growth of Macao's civil aviation sector has not only brought aviation-related industries substantial benefits, but a large number of high spending visitors for the tourism industry.

The civil aviation industry plays an important role in the development of local small and medium enterprises, multi-source tourists, and local industrial diversification, said Samuel Tong, sub-director of Macao Civil Aviation, at a recent seminar here.

Statistics showed that travelers visit Macao by air would spend 3 times more in shopping, dining, accommodation, transport and other non-gaming consumption than visitors come through other transport channels.

The entire international aviation industry in the world have created about 30 million jobs, with an estimated $3 trillion contributed to the economy, accounting for eight percent of the global GDP, according to Law Cheung Kwok, associate director of Aviation Policy and Research Center of Chinese University of Hong Kong.

He pointed out at the seminar that the aviation industry's contribution to the tourism industry, as the fully opened international aviation market, decline of ticket costs, and the growth of global economics, have all led to the rising demands of aviation services for business as well as leisure travel.