Haze had ‘no clear impact’ on Changi passenger traffic, retail

SINGAPORE — Fears that the haze crisis last month would hit the tourism and retail sectors turned out to be unfounded, going by numbers released yesterday by Changi Airport Group (CAG) and credit card company MasterCard.

In a press release, the CAG said the haze had “no discernible impact” on passenger and aircraft movements.

In fact, passenger traffic at Changi Airport increased by 6.1 per cent last month compared to the same period last year, with 4.67 million passengers passing through the airport — the highest monthly figure so far this year.

Flight movements also grew at the same rate, with 28,300 aircraft landings and take-offs recorded.

The CAG said air traffic to and from regions such as South-east Asia, North-east Asia, South Asia and the Middle East grew.

For the first six months of the year, Changi Airport managed 26.2 million passengers, an increase of 5 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year. Aircraft movements grew by 4.6 per cent to 166,800.

Separately, MasterCard said its cardholders spent US$797.4 million (S$1 billion) in Singapore between May 31 to June 30 — the first month of the Great Singapore Sale (GSS) — an increase of 12.4 per cent over the same period last year. Singapore-based MasterCard holders accounted for almost 70 per cent of the spend.

Overall, the number of transactions also rose 17.1 per cent to about 6.4 million last month, compared to the same period last year.

MasterCard Singapore General Manager Julienne Loh said: “The haze that hit Singapore in mid-June certainly did not dampen the GSS shopping spirit.”

The recent bout of haze — during which the Pollutant Standards Index reading hit a record high of 401 — lasted for about week. There were initial concerns about the impact on the economy, especially on tourism, if the haze lasted for a prolonged period, given the record PSI levels.

CIMB Research regional economist Song Seng Wun noted that the haze last month had “marginal impact” on tourism-related industries because it was short-lived and the record-high PSI readings were registered on weekdays.

“If it had been persistently bad into the weekend, we could have seen a more adverse impact,” he said.

Mr Song noted that although there were some tourists who cut short their holidays, no major conventions were cancelled because of the haze.

To date, the worst economic impact suffered by Singapore because of the haze was in 1997, when the Republic was blanketed in smog for three months.

Professor Euston Quah, head of Nanyang Technological University’s Department of Economics, had estimated that the haze cost the country about US$300 million, including an estimated loss of US$210 million in tourism.