Singapore Handles Record Traffic

08 Feb 2013

Singapore’s Changi airport handled a record 51.2 million transit passengers last year, registering an increase of 10% over the previous year. In the month of December, the airport registered 4.92 million passengers.  Changi’a single day record was on December 22, when the highest passenger movement to date of a total of 180,400 passengers used it within a 24-hour period.  There was continued passenger growth from all regions in the world, including Eurozone despite the market weakening there. Visitors from Europe increased by 7.5%, South Asia by 12.4%, North-East Asia 9.9%, South-East Asia 9.7% and South-West Pacific 9.4%.

Changi’s busiest routes include Jakarta, Hong, Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Manila. Bangkok and Tokyo that registered the highest increase of 10% traffic over the previous year. 

There was surge in traffic from gateway hubs, particularly Beijing, Frankfurt and Guangzhou, and connectivity to secondary cities such as Australia’s Gold Coast, Paro in Bhutan and Taiyuan also increased.

While the volumes are widening all round and year round, Singapore is planning to adopt a more aggressive strategy on tourism. Second Trade and industry minister S.Iswaran said the tourism policy would be guided by three Cs –Content, clients and connectivity. Singapore is proving to be a major tourism destination, and the government wants to cash in on that.