SINGAPORE, 2 May 2018: Changi Airport Group honoured the top airlines contributing to the success of the airport and passenger growth in 2017, during a ceremony Monday.
The top five passenger carriers were the Singapore Airlines Group, Jetstar Group, AirAsia Group, Cathay Pacific Airways and Lion Group.
The awards to airline partners were presented at the Changi Airline Awards 2018 hosted at The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore.
Singapore’s Minister for Education (Schools) and Second Minister forTransport, Ng Chee Meng, was the guest of honour for the presentation of 25 awards to airlines that contributed most significantly to Changi’s air traffic in 2017.
The Partner of the Year award was presented to Singapore Airlines, in recognition of its efforts in recent years to enhance Singapore’s global air hub status and network connectivity.
This included the airline’s recent delivery of the Boeing 787-10 with its new regional cabin products, as well as the new A380 aircraft fitted with state-of-the-art cabin products.
Singapore Airlines has also expanded its route network to include links to Canberra, Dusseldorf, Stockholm and Wellington. It also launched daily non-stop services to San Francisco.
Singapore Airlines chief executive officer, Goh Choon Phong said: “The SIA Group is committed to growing Singapore’s network connectivity for the benefit of our customers and we look forward to working with CAG in support of the further enhancement of Singapore’s position as a leading aviation hub.”
Singapore Airlines Group continued to head the list of top cargo carriers with the highest cargo volume, followed by Cathay Pacific Airways, FedEx Express, China Airlines and EVA Air.
CAG chief executive officer, Lee Seow Hiang, noted it was vital for Changi Airport to have sufficient capacity to support airline growth plans.
This includes infrastructure investments in new development projects, as well as finding ways to unlock capacity by enhancing existing infrastructure for higher operational efficiency.
Ahead of the completion of Changi East, CAG will be working with airline and airport partners to optimise use of existing resources and capacity at Changi Airport. This includes the revamp of Terminal 2 and adoption of technology to reduce runway queuing.
“We have effectively reduced the average runway queuing time for departing flights by 90 seconds in the first year and a further 30 seconds in the second year, translating to fuel savings for the airlines.”
Changi will add capacity through the revamp of Terminal 2, which will increase its handling capacity by about 3 million passengers per year. Besides harnessing new innovations and lessons learned from Terminal 4, the revamp will upgrade baggage handling system and improvements to the Skytrain service.
2017 was a positive year for Changi Airport, with a record-breaking 62.2 million passengers passing through its gates – a robust 6.0% year-on-year growth, and with air cargo throughput surpassing the 2 million tonne mark for the first time in a calendar year.
Partner of the Year
Singapore Airlines
Top Five Airlines and Airline Groups by Passenger Carriage (In order of merit, based on passenger carriage in 2017)
Singapore Airlines Group
Jetstar Group
AirAsia Group
Cathay Pacific Airways
Lion Group
Top Five Airlines and Airline Groups by Cargo Carriage (In order of merit, based on cargo uplift in 2017)
Singapore Airlines Group
Cathay Pacific Airways
FedEx Express
China Airlines
EVA Air
Top Airlines by Absolute Passenger Growth (By Region based on the airline’s home region and absolute passenger growth in 2017)
Region and Airline
Americas; United Airlines
Europe; Swiss International Air Lines
Middle East & Africa; Emirates
Northeast Asia; Shenzhen Airlines
Singapore; Scoot
South Asia; Jet Airways
Southeast Asia; VietJet Air
Southwest Pacific; Qantas Airways
Top Five Airlines by Absolute Cargo Growth (In order of merit, by absolute cargo growth in 2017)
Singapore Airlines Cargo
Jet Airways
Scoot
Cathay Pacific Airways
Garuda Indonesia
