Shenzhen Airport-Macao ferry route opens, boosting Greater Bay Area connectivity

A new direct ferry route connecting the Shenzhen Airport Ferry Terminal in China's Guangdong Province and the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal in the Macao Special Administrative Region officially launched on Sunday, enhancing cross-border connectivity across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Initially, the service plans to operate one round trip each day, with a one-way journey taking about 70 minutes. Each vessel has a maximum capacity of 388 passengers. "Through the airport's air-sea intermodal transport, passengers can quickly reach the passenger ferry terminal after arriving at the airport, seamlessly connecting to their ferry to Macao," said Liu Ke, deputy director of passenger transportation center of the Shenzhen Airport Ferry Terminal.

As connectivity in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area continues to deepen, cross-border interactions between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, as well as Macao, are becoming increasingly close.

From January to October this year, the number of passengers from Hong Kong and Macao traveling through Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport reached 622,000, with weekly passenger numbers exceeding 10,000 becoming the norm.

In recent years, Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport has leveraged its advantages of air-sea intermodal transport to routinely operate waterborne cross-border routes connecting the Shenzhen Airport Ferry Terminal with Hong Kong and Macao.

Shenzhen Airport-Macao ferry route opens, boosting Greater Bay Area connectivity

A total of 297.665 million inter-regional passenger trips nationwide were recorded on Saturday, the second day of the five-day May Day holiday this year, transport authorities said on Sunday.

The figure represents a 1.7 percent increase from the same day last year and a 11.8 percent decline from Friday, the first day of the break.

Railway passenger trips rose 1.2 percent from a year ago to 19.781 million, 20.4 percent down the previous day and up 1.2 percent year on year.

A total of 273.86 million road trips were reported on the day, an increase of 1.8 percent year on year, and 11.2 percent less from the previous day.

Among them, commercial passenger trips reached 39.40 million, an increase of 14.9 percent year on year, while non-commercial passenger trips reached 234.46 million, roughly the same as the previous year.

The waterways handled 2.096 million trips, marking a 1.3 percent decline year on year.

The civil aviation passenger trips stood at 1.928 million, down 11 percent from the previous year.

China's postal sector collected 474 million parcels, up 6.3 percent from the previous day, and delivered 493 million parcels, down 4.6 percent from the previous day.

The May Day holiday, running from May 1 to 5, is typically one of the busiest travel periods of the year. During this time, millions of Chinese passengers hit the road to visit family or go traveling.

Holiday Day 2 sees 297.665 mln passenger trips