Foundation for Aviation Agreement Between Macao and Japan is Laid with Chartered Flights

Air Macao is to launch a charter-flight service with the Kyushu branch of JTB Inc. to bring Japanese tourists to the former Portuguese territory, the Macao government said Wednesday.

Six charter flights will run between Macao and the cities of Nagasaki and Fukuoka on Japan's southern island of Kyushu between the end of December and early January, according to the announcement.

The service will use a 150-seat A-321 Airbus from Air Macao, the enclave's flag carrier.

''The introduction of charter flights will lay the foundation for our ultimate wish of reaching an aviation agreement and developing scheduled flight service between Macao and Japan,'' Joao Manual Costa Antunes, director of the Macao Government Tourist Office, told a press conference in Tokyo, according to a government statement.

''It will have a significant role in bolstering the transport links as well as in developing and consolidating Japan as a major tourist market (for Macao),'' he said, according to the statement.

Japan is one of the major sources of tourists for Macao. In the first seven months of this year, some 81,000 Japanese travelers visited the territory, which returned to Chinese rule in December last year.

''With signs of an economic recovery in Japan and a stronger yen, we believe that more and more Japanese will plan holidays abroad and choose Macao as their destination for leisure, convention or incentive travel as it's a perfect 'an-kin-tan' (cheaper, closer, shorter) destination,'' the Macao official said.

The tourism head is visiting Japan to attract visitors to Macao.