One of the busiest airports in South East Asia-Changi Airport of Singapore has created a record of handling about 58.7 million passengers in 2016. This airport has seen burgeoning traffic as it is an important route in South East Asia, North East Asia and Oceania.
Making this announcement, Changi Airport Group said, “There is growth of 5.9 per cent passenger traffic from 2015. Aircraft movements rose 4.1 per cent for the year to 360,490, while airfreight throughput increased by 6.3 per cent to a new high of 1.97 million tonnes.”
On December 23, 2016 Changi airport handled about 202,359 passengers, which was maximum on a single day.
In 2016, routes to South East Asia, North East Asia and Oceania contributed 90 per cent of the growth in passenger traffic. China moved from fifth to become Changi Airport’s third-largest country market, a growth of 15 per cent. In addition to this, number of visitors from Thailand (+6%) and Vietnam (+8%) also increased compared with the figures from 2015.
Several new destinations were added to Changi Airport during last year. The new destinations included Amritsar and Jaipur in India, Urumqi in China, Australian capital Canberra, Wellington in New Zealand, Nadi in Fiji, Sapporo in Japan and Dusseldorf in Germany.
Lee Seow Hiang, CEO of Changi Airport Group, said, “2016 was a record-breaking year for Changi Airport, with passenger traffic and cargo throughput both registering new peaks. Despite a backdrop of economic and socio-political uncertainties, we maintain a positive outlook for the year ahead. We see opportunities in emerging markets within Africa and Eastern Europe. At the same time, we will continue to grow our long haul routes to Western Europe, and strengthen our connectivity within the region to secondary cities in South East Asia, China and India.