Changi Airport’s passenger traffic hit all-time high of 62.2m last year

SINGAPORE — Changi Airport handled a record 62.2 million passenger movements last year, 6 per cent higher than a year ago.

Airfreight throughput grew by 7.9 per cent, crossing 2 million tonnes for the first time to hit 2.13 million tonnes.

Terminal 4, which was opened in October, served 1.3 million passengers in its first two months of operations.

In December, the airport handled 5.86 million passenger movements, 32,960 aircraft movements and 188,740 tonnes of airfreight throughput, making it the busiest month of the year, said Changi Airport Group on Tuesday (Jan 23).

Traffic across all regions saw positive growth, with contributions coming mostly from Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. China and India posted double-digit growths at 12 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively.

Speaking to reporters at a media briefing, managing director for the group’s air hub development Lim Ching Kiat said the demand for air travel in the Asia-Pacific is expected to triple in the next two decades.

The airport aims to increase total handling capacity to 85 million passengers per annum with the opening of Jewel Changi Airport and the completion of Changi’s Terminal 1 expansion in 2019, he added.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), last year was a profitable year for airlines. “We think last year was a very strong year. This year will be a good year but probably a bit slower than last year,” said Mr Lim.

This year, the group expects more developments in the long-haul segments to Europe, he said. These include Scoot’s non-stop service to Berlin, and LOT Polish Airlines’ new service connecting Singapore and Warsaw.

At the same time, the group plans to continue to strengthen its connectivity to secondary cities in the fastest growing markets of China and India.

“Today, China is the largest tourism outbound market in the world. So it is a market that nobody can ignore. All the tourism authorities you talk to worldwide, they are looking at China and so is Singapore,” said Mr Lim. “But our thinking is we should also diversify our traffic sources.”

The group will build more connections and traffic to other countries like Indonesia and India.

Meanwhile, airports in the world are churning out new attractions to draw more travellers, Mr Lim said.

Changi continues to have marketing collaborations with airlines and the Singapore Tourism Board to draw traffic. Jewel’s opening next year will also contribute to the local tourism scene, he added.

Airports in Asia are working hard to keep pace with growth in the region, and Singapore is no exception.

Mr Lim noted work on Terminal 5 and the third runway, efforts to “put in the capacity” and to “(squeeze) the maximum efficiency” out of existing infrastructure.

Data showed Singapore ranking sixth in international traffic, but he stressed that the ranking is also not “just a numbers game.”

“Aviation and economic cycles, they go up and down. While the winds are strong now, it is very hard to predict, (in) one to two years’ time, how it would be like. While the winds are strong, let’s be aggressive and get as much of the traffic now,” he said.