A new border crossing has opened between Macau and Hengqin Island with a capacity to boost daily capacity between the checkpoints to around 222,000 people.
Hengqin Port, as it’s called, replaces the Lotus Bridge crossing and could contribute to a doubling of annual visitation to the casino hub, according to a report by English-language news portal Inside Asian Gaming.
Hengqin is part of mainland China’s Guangdong province and is administered by the government of the neighboring city of Zhuhai, a major conduit to Macau for the more than 44 million people living in the greater Pearl River Delta region.
Future plans for the crossing include a motor vehicle bridge and a link-up between train service on the mainland and a light rail system under construction in Macau.
In related news, Macau’s second-largest airline has called on the local government to negotiate with Thailand for a no-quarantine “travel bubble” to restart visitation between the two jurisdictions.
Malaysia-based AirAsia, the region’s largest budget carrier, said that with the coronavirus pandemic under control in both Macau and Thailand it’s ready to resume flights between them “at any moment,” according to a report from Macau’s Portuguese-language TDM news network.
The “travel bubble” idea, similar to the current easing of pandemic-related border controls between Macau and mainland China, would allow Macau and Thailand “to re-establish connections between them by opening up borders and allowing people to travel freely within the zone without having the need to undergo on-arrival quarantine,” said AirAsia CEO Celia Lao.
Prior to the pandemic, AirAsia ran flights to more than 165 destinations in 25 countries and occupied 15 percent of the runway slots at Macau International Airport, second only to Air Macau, the territory’s former monopoly carrier.
Macau received about 150,000 visitors from Thailand in 2019.
