September 2014 was a slow month for Singapore Changi Airport registering 4.25 million passenger movements, a decline of 0.5% year-on-year. A decline of aircraft landings and takeoffs by 5% to 27,020 was registered.
Travel to South Asia and Northeast Asia grew by 11% and 2% respectively while other regions saw lower passenger movements. India registered double-digit growth while China and Thailand traffic dropped by 6% and 9% respectively year-on-year.
The first three quarters of 2014 saw 40.09 million passengers travelling through Changi Airport, a 0.9% increment from the corresponding period in 2013. This was fuelled by stronger travel demand on Northeast Asia, South Asia and Southwest Pacific routes. Aircraft movements grew 0.6% to 255,260.
Jakarta remains a popular followed by Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Manila. Denpasar-Bali continues to be popular with more than 20% growth in the first nine months, the highest among Changi Airport’s top 10 destinations.
As at 1 October 2014, more than 100 airlines operate at Changi Airport connecting Singapore to over 300 cities in some 70 countries and territories globally. An aircraft takes off or lands roughly once every 90 seconds with more than 6,400 weekly scheduled flights.
In September, Taipei based low cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan (IT) launched its first scheduled service between Singapore and Taipei on 26 September, the seventh airline to operate this route. Tigerair also launched a new weekly service to Jinan on 16 September. On 19 September, China Eastern introduced a daily service to Lanzhou via Kunming.
On 1 October, Air India introduced daily non-stop services between Mumbai and Singapore, and between Chennai and Singapore, replacing the Mumbai – Chennai – Singapore service, adding close to 1,800 one-way seats weekly.
