Before the opening of Macau airport, the nearest international airport was Kai Tak in British Hong Kong and passengers from Macau had to take a ferry to Hong Kong in order to fly out of Kai Tak. Upon planning, Macau airport was said that it would relieve the congestion at Kai Tak. The Macau airport was constructed on reclaimed land adjacent to the islands of Taipa and Coloane. It cost US$1 billion to build. Commercial air service began on 9 November 1995. The first departure was an Air Macau flight to Beijing, and the first arrival was a Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur. The official inauguration ceremony took place on 8 December 1995, and Portuguese president Mário Soares presided over it.

In April 1996, TAP Air Portugal started service to Lisbon using Airbus A340s. It cooperated with Sabena on the route; the flight stopped in Brussels, and TAP allocated a certain number of seats to the airline on the segment between Brussels and Macau. TAP encountered difficulties in running the flights. The crew had to spend long layovers in Macau because the service operated only twice a week. Additionally, TAP and Air Macau, in which the former held a stake, were unable to coordinate their schedules, making connections between the Lisbon flight and Air Macau's network inconvenient. In April 1997, TAP moved the stopover to Bangkok in hopes of attracting more passengers. Nevertheless, it was losing money on the route. The company's chairman stated in November 1997 that he wanted to end the link but that he faced opposition from the Portuguese government, which owned the airline. TAP stopped serving Macau the following year.