Welcome to this page, especially designed for those who plan to come to HKG and then go to Macau to pay a short visit, and of course, do spotting at the new Macau International Airport MFM..

Macau International Airport, opened in late-1995, is one of the newest airport in the South China region. The airport itself is built on the reclaimed land of Taipa Island. It has a runway which is built on the water, and with two taxiway bridges linking with the terminal main building and the parking bays.

Spotting in Macau is not very common to Macau people. Airport is a very new thing to the residents of Macau. In the past times, residents of Macau had to travel to HKG by sea, and then had their flights to other placesvia HKG. Now, Macau has its own airport. However, most of the visitors of Macau still go to Hongkong first, and then pay a short visit to Macau. The reason is very obvious. This is because HKG provides far more flights than Macau. The passenger flow of Macau MFM in one day is even lower than HKG one hour's passenger flow.

Meanwhile, Macau mainly serves as a gateway between China and Taiwan. This is due to Air Macau has the privilege to have one-stop flight between China and Taiwan without changing aircraft or airline, but with different flight number. Now, Dragonair also has this right. Most of the passengers of Macau MFM are of Chinese, Macau and Taiwanese residents.

Macau MFM is very new to most of the spotters. I have been to Macau many times, but I only visited MFM once, which was in mid-July 1996. In my opinion, Macau MFM is not a very good airport. The airport itself does not have any shops, not even a newspaper stand, but there are duty-free shops on the air-side. Its facilities are therefore quite poor. Spotting places are not too many, just a few, even fewer than HKG.

After my first visit to Macau MFM, I would like to recommend the following places:

• Macau Int'l Airport North & South Car Park Area
  The car park itself is in open space. The car park is just next to the aerodrome, where aircrafts are parked there for a longer period or overnight. The aerodrome and the car park is separated by a fence, but photographing there is okay. The runway is just far away in front of you, which is Runway 34 with ILS approach, and Runway 16. The exit of Runway 34 will first lead to the aerodrome outside the car park area. You can have a good view from there. You can also see the control tower in front of you.
  In the south car park area, there you can see the cargo and engineering building. When there are cargo planes arrive, they may park outside the building, but most of the cargo planes park outside the north car park area.

• Macau Int'l Airport Restaurant
  This restaurant is not the same as the one in HKG Kai Tak. Here, you could just spot the planes, since the restaurant is quite far away from the aerodrome. However, you can still see the planes arriving or departing. Of course, you cannot see the registrations of the plane clearly!

• A Hillside Road behind the Macau Int'l Airport MFM
  Sorry to everybody here that I can't tell you the name of this road! It's a road on the hill, which is behind the airport terminal building. From there, you can have a full view of the whole airport.

  How to get there?
  If you have a ticket to Macau MFM direct, then you know how to get there. There is an airport bus route, AP1, which runs between airport and the border to China. This route also stops at the Hongkong-Macau Ferry Terminal.

  For spotters who arrive from HKG, you can go to the Hongkong-Macau Ferry Terminal of HK by getting an Airbus from the airport HKG. The bus route is A2. The ferry terminal is also accessible by MTR. The station, called Sheung Wan, which is the terminus for the Island Line, is only 5-minute-walk from the terminal. At the ferry terminal, you have to buy a ticket of jetfoil. There are jetfoil services throughout the day, in 15 minutes frequency. Ferry companies include Far East Hydrofoil, Turbocat and Hongkong Ferry. The price for one-way economy class ticket is about HK$140, while an upper class ticket for Far East Hydrofoil is about HK$150. Tickets can be purchased at the ferry terminals in Hongkong and Macau, selected MTR stations' travel centre, Macau International Airport Arrivals Level and many other places.

  The journey itself takes just below 60 minutes. At the Macau Ferry Terminal, you can get an airport bus AP1 to Macau MFM.

  Before getting there, you can check the Macau Airport Schedules to choose which planes you are interested in and go there in a specific date or time. It would be more efficient to do so as waiting for planes at the airport is not worthwhile since there are not much planes landing on Macau International Airport.

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