CHANGI Airport had around 16.5 million passengers passing through its terminals in the second quarter of 2024, up 13.4 per cent from the year before.
The figure was 98.2 per cent of passenger movements that went through it in Q2 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, said Changi Airport Group (CAG) on Friday (Jul 26).
The group added that aircraft movements in the quarter amounted to 89,300, up 9.7 per cent from the year-ago period.
Changi’s top five passenger markets for the quarter were Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Australia and India.
CAG noted that China logged the highest growth among the top markets; traffic doubled from the year-ago period and surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
Passenger traffic in North Asia registered a 40.8 per cent increase year on year, making it the “fastest-growing region”.
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Lim Ching Kiat, CAG’s executive vice-president for air hub and cargo development, said: “Changi Airport continues to expand its global network, having added more flights in Q2.”
In April, the airport introduced two airlines – Shandong Airlines, which started Jinan-Singapore services thrice a week; and Air Japan, which launched five weekly Tokyo-Singapore services.
Singapore Airlines also launched non-stop services between London Gatwick and Singapore last month, adding five-times-a-week flights to the existing 49 weekly Singapore-Heathrow services.
On the cargo front, the airport’s airfreight throughput stood at 486,000 tonnes for the quarter. This figure exceeded that in Q2 2023 by 16 per cent.
This comes as growth was recorded across all cargo flows – exports, imports and transshipment – led by transportation between Singapore and China, as well as the US.
Australia, China, Hong Kong, India and the US were Changi’s top five air cargo markets in Q2.
“Together with our airline partners, we are striving towards full travel recovery by the end of this year,” said Lim.
As at Jul 1, 94 airlines were operating more than 6,900 weekly scheduled flights at Changi Airport, connecting Singapore to 158 cities in 50 countries and territories worldwide, CAG said.