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Changi hits new passenger record

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SINGAPORE, 24 January 2018 – Singapore Changi Airport registered a strong performance in 2017, handling a record 62.2 million passenger movements (+6.0%) for the year with 373,200 landings and take-offs (+3.5%).

December was once again the busiest month of the year, with Changi Airport handling 5.86 million passenger movements (+3.3%) and 32,960 aircraft movements (+3.1%).

The busiest day of the year was 22 December 2017 (Friday) with 208,043 passengers passing through Changi’s terminals – a record for the airport.

In 2017, traffic across all regions saw positive growth, with Southeast and Northeast Asia contributing to about 70% of total traffic.

Among Changi’s top 10 country markets, China and India led with a robust double-digit growth of 12% and 16%, respectively. Among Changi Airport’s busiest routes, Kuala Lumpur (+7%) replaced Jakarta as Changi’s top city link for 2017.

Among Changi Airport’s top 20 destinations, Guangzhou was the fastest growing (+15%), while Brisbane, Penang and Phuket recorded growth of at least 6%.

New airlines and destinations

During the year, Changi Airport welcomed three passenger airlines – Hebei Airlines, Norwegian and US-Bangla Airlines, to its family of over 100 airlines. Ten new passenger city links were also established, to China (Harbin, Shijiazhuang, Yantai), Greece (Athens), India (Madurai), Japan (Hiroshima, Okinawa), Malaysia (Bintulu), Sweden (Stockholm) and USA (Honolulu).

There are now more passengers who travel on multiple transport modes on their journeys. To cater to these emerging passenger segments – including fly-cruise and fly-ferry, CAG worked with partners to offer more travel options.

In 2017, a new shuttle service was launched to facilitate transfers between Changi Airport and Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, and this has seen a ridership of close to 10,000 passengers in its seven months of operations.

To grow the fly-cruise market, CAG has also signed various collaborations with cruise companies – which are expected to bring in more than 600,000 visitors over a four-year period.

Transfer and transit passengers continue to be an important segment for Changi Airport. Under the ongoing Changi Transit Programme, about 700,000 passengers claimed transit rewards, while shopping in Changi in 2017.  CAG has also continued efforts with its partners to grow the MICE segment in Singapore.

CAG’s managing director, Air Hub Development, Lim Ching Kiat said: “2017 was a significant year for Changi Airport, as we saw strong growth in both passenger traffic and cargo throughput, resulting in record numbers. We also opened the new tech-friendly Terminal 4, which served 1.3 million passengers in its first two months of operations. With the establishment of new city links to many parts of the world, and the launch of a number of non-stop long haul routes, we have also expanded our connectivity, providing greater convenience for our passengers.

Looking ahead  long-haul segments to Europe will be added. This includes Scoot’s nonstop service to Berlin, and LOT Polish Airlines’ new service connecting Singapore and Warsaw.

Qantas returns to offer the Singapore-London route and an offer an overall increase in seat capacity between Singapore and Australia, as well as Lufthansa’s resumption of iservice to Munich.

“At the same time, we will continue our efforts to strengthen our connectivity to secondary cities in China and India – our fastest growing markets in 2017.”

Demand for air travel in the Asia-Pacific is expected to triple in the next two decades. With the opening of Jewel Changi Airport and the completion of Changi’s Terminal 1 expansion in 2019, Changi Airport’s handling capacity will increase to 85 million passengers per annumyer. This should ensure Changi Airport is the leading air hub with sufficient capacity to ride on the projected growth in air traffic in the region.

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