The loss of airline company Air Macau shrank 14.2% in the first half of 2026, compared to the same period in 2025, to 331 million yuan (42.4 million euros). During this period, the company's operating revenues rose 16% year-on-year, reaching 1.74 billion yuan (223.1 million euros). The number of passengers increased 7.9%, to 1.69 million, the average flight occupancy rate rose 2.6 percentage points, reaching 78.34%, and revenue passenger-kilometers grew 3.3%.
Air Macau, which has Air China as its parent company, did not have specific reasons for its losses mentioned in the report. However, Air China pointed to the increase in fuel prices as justification for the group's total loss, which reached 2.29 billion yuan (293.6 million euros), 26.6% more than in the first half of 2025.
The flag carrier of Macau has been recording consecutive losses since 2020, with the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, which led to the imposition of restrictions on tourists coming from mainland China, the main market for the region. Over the past six years, Air Macau accumulated total losses of 3.89 billion yuan (498.7 million euros), including 655 million yuan (84 million euros) in 2025 alone. At the end of 2024, shareholders injected 1.6 billion patacas (170 million euros) into the company, including 344.1 million patacas (36.6 million euros) in public money.
In February 2025, Macau implemented a new civil aviation legal framework that liberalizes the market and ends Air Macau's monopoly, which had lasted since 1995. However, the Government has not yet issued concessions to any other airline, beyond the 20-year operating license given to Air Macau. Macau International Airport currently operates regular passenger flights to 47 destinations in mainland China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Japan, and South Korea, and in April 2025, the first long-haul cargo route between Macau and Madrid, operated by Ethiopian Airlines, was launched.
