SINGAPORE - A total of 5.12 million passengers passed through Changi Airport in June, marking the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in January 2020 that monthly passenger traffic has crossed the five million mark.
There were also 27,500 flights – 88 per cent of the flights in June 2019 – that took off from or landed at the airport, according to the latest figures released by Changi Airport Group (CAG) on Thursday.
Between April and June 2023, 14.6 million passengers passed through the airport. This is 87 per cent of passenger numbers recorded for the same period in 2019.
In the second quarter of 2023, 81,400 flights – or almost 90 per cent of total flights during the corresponding period in 2019 – landed at or departed from Changi Airport.
The airport’s top five traffic markets for the second quarter of the year were Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
CAG said passenger traffic to and from North-east Asia continued to show steady improvement, rising from around 50 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels in January 2023 to 75 per cent by June 2023.
Changi Airport’s efforts to bring in more traffic and rebuild its reach led to the introduction of new routes such as a twice-weekly direct flight to Bhubaneswar, a city in eastern India, on Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo. Flights began on June 3.
In June, Air Canada also announced the resumption of its Vancouver-Singapore service from April 2024, after more than three decades since the airline last operated at Changi. This will be the only non-stop service connecting Canada and Singapore.
At its 2019 peak, Changi Airport had more than 7,400 weekly flights serving more than 170 cities worldwide.
Connectivity is being steadily restored after nearly three years of travel restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
As at July 1, a total of 99 airlines operate more than 6,300 weekly scheduled flights at Changi Airport, connecting Singapore to 148 cities.
Mr Lim Ching Kiat, Changi Airport Group’s executive vice-president for air hub and cargo development, said: “Changi Airport continues to witness steady growth in passenger traffic, with passenger movements inching closer to 90 per cent of 2019 levels as we close the second quarter.
“We are pleased to have crossed the five million mark again in June with the mid-year holiday season. Changi has regained more than 80 per cent of its pre-Covid-19 city links, and we look forward to strengthening connectivity to more points in South-east Asia and China in the second half of the year.”
In its projections at the start of 2023, the Singapore Tourism Board said international visitor arrivals to Singapore were expected to hit 12 million to 14 million in 2023, with full tourism recovery expected by 2024.
Singapore’s international visitor arrivals climbed to 1.13 million in June, exceeding the one million mark for the fourth consecutive month, and recovering from May’s slight dip of 1.11 million visitors.
Indonesia remained the top source of visitors to Singapore, accounting for 217,051 visitors in June. This was a jump from the 183,758 Indonesian tourists who arrived in the Republic in May.
In the first half of 2023, Singapore recorded 6.28 million visitor arrivals.
