SINGAPORE’s Changi Airport logged healthy growth numbers last year with passenger traffic and aircraft movements rising 2.5 and 1.4 per cent year-on-year, or a total of 55.4 million passengers and 346,330 landings and take-offs respectively.
The month of December broke monthly traffic records with a 3.9 per cent increment compared to the same period in 2014, for a total of 5.29 million passenger movements.
Thailand, Vietnam and China were the fastest growing source markets, registering 12.5, 7.2 and 7 per cent increases respectively. Meanwhile, arrivals from Indonesia declined 7.3 per cent and from Hong Kong by 1.2 per cent. Changi Airport attributed the declines to the strength of the Singapore currency.
Still, Indonesia remained as Singapore’s top source market with the Singapore-Jakarta route being the busiest for the airport, recording 3.79 million passenger movements last year. Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Manila were the next four busiest links.
Part of the growth came from the commencement of new and returning carriers at the airport. Air New Zealand resumed operations on the Singapore-Auckland route while the likes of Batik Air, Thai Lion Air and Myanmar National Airlines improved traffic flow within South-east Asia.
Eight new passenger destinations were also added in 2015, including Changchun, Quanzhou, Sanya and Yinchuan in China, as well as Cairns in Australia, Lucknow in India, Luang Prabang in Laos and Pattaya (U-Tapao) in Thailand.
“We have seen both full-service and low-cost carriers add capacity in recent months and this has resulted in stronger passenger growth of about 5 per cent for the second half of the year,” said Lee Seow Hiang, CEO, Changi Airport Group.
“Going forward, economic uncertainty in many markets, made worse by lacklustre business and consumer confidence, may dampen travel demand in the near term. However, low fuel prices should support airlines’ profitability.”
