Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that licensed motor vehicles in Macao totalled 244,457 as at end-March 2021, up by 1.3% year-on-year. Light automobiles (111,644) and heavy motorcycles (103,454) grew by 1.5% and 3.2% year-on-year respectively. New registration of motor vehicles in March rose by 34.3% year-on-year to 1,312, with that of heavy motorcycles (714) and light automobiles (564) increasing by 36.3% and 54.1% respectively. In the first quarter of 2021, new registration of motor vehicles surged by 50.7% year-on-year to 3,506. Number of traffic accidents in March totalled 958, with 341 persons injured. In the first quarter of 2021, there were 3,075 traffic accidents, which caused 1,017 injuries.
Cross-border vehicular traffic in March 2021 soared by 87.7% year-on-year to 381,792 trips, of which light automobile trips (352,263) and heavy truck trips (27,896) leapt by 98.1% and 23.4% respectively. Meanwhile, gross weight of containerized cargo by land rose by 28.0% year-on-year to 2,271 tonnes, with 96.3% (2,188 tonnes) passing through the Checkpoint of Macao Port Administration Area of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. In the first quarter of 2021, cross-border vehicular traffic (1,049,388 trips) and gross weight of containerized cargo by land (6,203 tonnes) increased by 37.1% and 22.2% year-on-year respectively.
Gross weight of port containerized cargo surged by 76.2% year-on-year to 13,789 tonnes in March; cargo being handled at the Inner Harbour (9,456 tonnes) and the Ká-Hó Harbour (4,333 tonnes) expanded by 35.1% and 424.9% year-on-year respectively. In the first quarter of 2021, gross weight of port containerized cargo went up by 26.4% year-on-year to 33,408 tonnes.
Arriving and departing commercial flights totalled 1,216 trips in March, an upsurge of 130.7% year-on-year. Air cargo increased by 48.1% year-on-year to 3,447 tonnes, of which gross weight of inward cargo (321 tonnes) and outward cargo (3,114 tonnes) soared by 85.2% and 59.9% respectively, whereas that of transit cargo (12 tonnes) declined by 94.3%. In the first quarter of 2021, number of arriving and departing commercial flights fell by 67.0% year-on-year to 2,775 trips, while air cargo rose by 31.0% to 8,385 tonnes.
As at the end of March, there were 105,347 fixed-line telephone subscribers, down by 8.1% year-on-year. Number of mobile phone subscribers decreased by 40.9% year-on-year to 1,353,697, ascribable to a 65.1% drop in prepaid SIM card subscribers (519,444). Meanwhile, internet subscribers rose by 6.2% year-on-year to 638,342. In March, total duration of internet usage went down by 1.8% year-on-year to 135 million hours. Total duration of internet usage in the first quarter of 2021 dropped by 2.0% year-on-year to 396 million hours.