The Macao International Airport handled 4.11 million passengers in the first three quarters, seeing a year-on-year rise of 13 percent, according to statistics released by the airport Tuesday.

The airport logged 39,790 take-offs and touch-downs between January and September, a growth of five percent on the same period of 2006, the statistics showed.

The figures showed that however, the airport's cargo movement dropped 19 percent year-on-year in the first nine months, standing at 132,661 metric tons.

The airport management dues the decrease of the cargo handling mainly to the competition produced by the booming of the air cargo business in the neighboring Pearl River Delta region.

The Macao International Airport is the only airport in the city with a population of 528,000.

Source: Xinhua