Japanese budget carrier Peach Aviation has expressed interest in Macau as a new flight destination, as the city seeks to link itself to more mid-haul destinations this year, the local airport operator Macau International Airport Co. Ltd. (CAM) said in a statement following the attendance of its delegation to the Aviation Festival Asia 2015 on 12^th and 13^th February.

During the course of the event, the delegates of Peach Aviation, led by the carrier's CEO Shinichi Inoue, expressed interest to CAM in commencing a flight service between Japan and Macau.

Currently, the only airline in Macau that flies passengers between Japan and the city is the territory's flag carrier Air Macau, whose flights to Tokyo and Osaka do not currently operate on a daily basis. In its statement, CAM expressed the hope that Peach Aviation could realise the flight link to Macau this year. CAM recently said that its task for this year is to facilitate the launching of new flight routes connecting more mid-haul destinations, in particular to and from India and Indonesia.

Last year, 299,849 visitors from Japan visited Macau, representing a 1 per cent year-on-year growth, data from the Statistics and Census Service reveals. Outbound Macau residents travelling to Japan on package tours and individual visit packages last year totalled 27,100 people, representing 27 per cent year-on-year growth from the 21,400 travellers of the previous year. This is a more rapid growth seen when compared to the 7 per cent rise seen in outbound local residents last year, when about 1.5 million journeys were recorded by local residents travelling on package tours or an individual visit packages offered by travel agencies here.

In addition, Macau International Airport has announced that all Air Macau tickets, originating from Macau to Mainland China, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, issued on/after 16^th February 2015 will be subject to lower fuel charges, with the price adjusted from US$38 per sector to US$30 per sector.