By the time when construction of the Macau International Airport started in 1992, its constructors had already realized that Macau should have an advanced air carrier. From the very first inaugural flights from Macau to Beijing and Shanghai in November 1995, Air Macau has been spreading its wings to new horizons at regular intervals. Less than a month after it started flying to China, Air Macau added Taiwan to its list of destinations with regular flights to Taipei beginning in December 1995. A month later in January 1996, Kaohsiung service was added. By March 1996, the carrier added Xiamen to its rapidly growing list of destinations. Two months later, in May 1996, it started flying to Thailand with three flights to Bangkok every week. After a period of consolidation, it spread its wing again. From March 23, 1997 Air Macau began flying to Qingao and from May 3, Wuhan service was commenced. From July 21, the second South East Asia Macau continues to expand its network in Mainland China, October 23, 1998 to Fuzhou, April, 1998 to Nanjing and May, 1998 to Chonqing.

The amount of formal registration capital of Air Macau was 400 million Macau dollars, about 50 million US dollars. It is a joint venture set up by companies from Portugal and China and investors from the two sides including private organizations and State - owned organizations, many of which have long and rich operation experiences in commercial flights, tourist industry and financial businesses. The main share holders include:

1. China National Aviation Corporation (Macau) Co. Ltd. (holding 51% percent of the shares)

2. Servicos, Administracao e Participcoes SEAP (holding 25 percent of the shares)

3. STDM (holding 14 percent of the shares)

4. The Macau Government (holding 5 percent of the shares)

5. The remaining shares are held by local investors.

The Air Macau Company has employed specialists with multi-cultural backgrounds , including pilots, mechanical engineers and aircrews are also experts in their fields and they come respectively from Portugal, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Thailand and Australia. Air Macau will absorb the creams of all cultures to seek for a perfect combination of the ancient Asia civilization with the experience, technologies and skills of developed countries in the West.

The mark of Air Macau symbolically represents its enterprise culture. It consists of a lotus which is the symbol of Macau (showing the Asian element of the company) and a white pigeon symbolizes for piece, friendship and co-operation of people in the world. The mark has three colours - red, white and purple, and red and purple are representative colours of Air Macau. The mark aims to build an image of combining tradition with progress - a basis for development and construction of Macau.

Air Macau had four planes in the initial stage of commercial flight from November to December 1995, two A321 were put into operation; from January to April 1996, there were another two A320 put into operation. It hopes to operate a fleet of 12 planes by 2000.

The network of Air Macau now covers major cities in mainland China (Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Fuzhou, Nanjing, Chongqing, Qingdao and Xiamen), Taipei, Kaoshiung, and South East Asia (Bangkok and Manila). New routes will be opened linking Macau with other major cities in Asia and mainland China.

The company plans to start intercontinental flights early next century. The coming of the new century will thus be the beginning of a new era for Air Macau. This will ensure Air Macau to make fully use of its geographical advantage at a best position when the Asian - Pacific region gradually become the most influential region in the world and the People's Republic of China becomes a major economic power.