Changi Airport closes 2010 with record 42 million passengers

After crossing the 40-million passenger mark in mid- December, a strong finish during the year-end festive holiday season enabled Singapore Changi Airport to close a successful 2010 with more than 42.0 million passenger movements during the year. This is an increase of 13.0% over 2009, and surpasses the previous annual record of 37.7 million passenger movements recorded in 2008.

Besides the full year record, the monthly and daily traffic records were also broken in December 2010. Passenger traffic for the month was 4.06 million, up 6.0% from a year before. A new daily traffic record was set on 18 December 2010 (the Saturday before Christmas Day) with 146,000 passenger movements during the 24 hours. Changi’s busiest day in 2009 was 19 December (also a Saturday) when the airport managed 140,000 passengers.

Strong growth was also registered in 2010 for airfreight handled, which rose 11.0% to 1.81 million tonnes, and aircraft movements, which gained 9.7% to 264,000 flights.

After a very difficult 2008/09, the cargo sector continued its return to growth for the 15th consecutive month with airfreight handled in December 2010 rising 4.1% year-on-year to 155,800 tonnes. For the 12 months ended October 2010, Changi Airport was the world’s seventh busiest airport in terms of international freight traffic handled.1

There were 23,839 aircraft movements in December 2010, up 8.9% compared to December 2009. As at 1 January 2011, Changi handles more than 5,400 scheduled flights each week, or one flight every two minutes, connecting Singapore to over 200 cities worldwide.

The passenger, cargo and commercial aircraft statistics for 2010 are provided in Annex A and are also available at http://www.changiairportgroup.com/cag/html/the-group/air_traffic_statistics.html

Southeast and Northeast Asia traffic leads growth
Changi Airport’s strong performance in 2010 was underpinned by robust traffic growth to and from Southeast and Northeast Asia. Buoyed by the rapid expansion of low cost carriers, passenger traffic to these two regions increased by more than 18% during the year. Traffic to and from South Asia and the Americas also enjoyed double digit growth.

Demand for low cost travel continued to grow strongly. Passenger movements on low cost carriers (LCCs) grew 33% while LCC flights increased by 22%. For 2010, LCCs accounted for 22.4% of passenger movements (2009: 19.1%) and 26.3% of flights (2009: 23.6%) at Changi.

In terms of passenger traffic, there was little change to the rankings of the top 10 routes from Changi, with Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Manila occupying the top five positions. (See Annex B for list). Among sectors with at least half a million passengers, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Mumbai, Penang and Phuket registered the strongest growth, reflecting the addition of capacity on these routes during the year.

In 2010, nine new airlines commenced operations at Changi Airport. They include regional passenger carriers such as Philippines’ Airphil Express and Hainan Airlines, and freighters such as China Cargo Airlines and Malaysia’s Transmile Air.

Fourteen new city links were added to Changi’s network. Of these, four are in China – Shantou and Guilin (served by Jetstar Asia), Hefei (Hainan Airlines) and Qingdao (China Eastern Airlines). In addition, 28 weekly services were introduced to Tokyo’s Haneda airport – by ANA, Japan Airlines and Singapore Airlines – in addition to existing services to Narita airport.

25 Best Airport awards in 2010
Changi Airport continued to receive accolades from travellers around the world in 2010, picking up 25 Best Airport awards. Both leisure and business travellers rated Changi highly. For example, readers of Business Traveller (UK) and Conde Nast Traveler (US) voted for Changi as the Best Airport in the World for the 23rd (consecutive) and seventh time respectively. Changi was also named World’s Best Airport in the 2010 Skytrax survey.

Changi Airport is the world’s most awarded airport. The tally of 25 awards in 2010 brings its total number of awards won since 1981 to 368.

Changi Airport Group (CAG) Chief Executive Officer, Mr Lee Seow Hiang, said, “CAG is proud of Changi Airport’s achievements in 2010. We recovered strongly from the economic downturn to grow traffic to record levels. Again, this would not have been possible without the strong support of our airline partners who expanded their capacity, increased flight frequencies and established new links from Changi.

“At the same time, our ground partners continued to embrace our philosophy of ‘Many Partners, Many Missions, ONE Changi’ – helping us to achieve even more recognition for the Changi Experience. They and the thousands who work at Changi have a share in the awards that Changi has won."

“As Changi Airport celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2011, we will work with our partners and strive to provide an even better airport experience that will delight passengers and visitors alike. I am confident that, together, Changi will continue to scale new heights this year and in the years ahead.”

1 Data from Airports Council International