India, China help push up passengers at Changi Airport

July 23, 2012

SINGAPORE, July 23 — Helped by increasing traffic from India and China, Singapore’s Changi Airport handled 25 million passengers in the first half of this year, up 11.6 per cent compared to the first six months last year, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

With links to 25 Chinese cities and 11 destinations in India, Changi Airport has become the most connected point from Southeast Asia to these two emerging economies, said the Changi Airport Group.

The six-month passenger traffic between Singapore and China and India grew more than 20 and 15 per cent, respectively, compared with the same period in 2011, it said.

Reflecting Changi’s increasing connectivity to China and India, traffic to the two countries grew strongest among markets with at least a million passengers, it said.

Guangzhou, New Delhi, Beijing, Frankfurt and Taipei registered the strongest percentage growth during the six-month period.

Demand for travel to and from the Middle East increased by 22 per cent,

South Asia 15 per cent and Northeast Asia 14 per cent, contributing to the increase in passenger traffic at Changi since the start of the year.

 The airport handled 4.4 million passenger movements in June 2012, 9.7 per cent more than a year before.

As at July 1, 100 airlines are operating at Changi Airport, connecting Singapore to more than 220 cities in 60 countries around the world.

With more than 6,200 weekly scheduled flights, an aircraft takes off or lands at Changi roughly once every 100 seconds, said the group. — Bernama