Traffic at Singapore Changi Airport, named Overall Winner at the Routes Asia 2023 Awards, bounced back to 32.2 million passengers in 2022, up from just 3.1 million during the 12 months prior. Since then, traffic has recovered to about 90% of 2019 levels, when the airport handled some 68 million passengers during the year.

Lim Ching Kiat, executive vice president for air hub and cargo development at Changi Airport Group (CAG), discussed the Singapore hub’s ongoing recovery, its network targets and the infrastructure developments underway.

What is traffic like at present? Which markets are proving to be strong?

Changi Airport recorded 4.8 million passenger movements in May 2023, about 90% of pre-COVID levels. In June, Singapore was the sixth-busiest international airport in the world in terms of seat capacity, as reported by OAG. Traffic between Singapore and Australia, India, the U.S. and South Korea has exceeded that of 2019, showing a strong demand for these routes.

What new routes have been secured over the past 12 months?

Changi Airport welcomed eight new airlines in 2022. They include seven passenger airlines—Aircalin, Bamboo Airways, Cambodia Airways, Citilink, HK Express, Thai Vietjet Air and T’way Air—and one freighter operator, Atlas Air. We also established four new passenger city links—Jeju (South Korea), Nouméa (New Caledonia), Pune (India) and Sibu (Malaysia).

For the first half of 2023, we welcomed two new passenger airlines—Air Macau and Firefly. We also established a new passenger city link to Bhubaneshwar, India. With the reopening of China’s borders earlier this year, we are also happy to see the resumption of operations by another four airlines—namely, Chongqing Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Guangxi Beibu Gulf Airlines and Hebei Airlines. Seven city links were also recovered to Changsha, Haikou, Jinan, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shenyang and Wuhan. We also look forward to our new connection to Beijing Daxing and resuming services to Yantai later this month.

Are there any destinations you are still looking to recover since the pandemic?

With more than 80% of our pre-COVID city links recovered, we are looking to re-establish Changi’s position as a strategic gateway to Southeast Asia and beyond. Specifically, we are focusing on regaining connectivity to the remaining Southeast Asian points we were previously connected to—especially Indonesia’s secondary cities such as Palembang, Bandung and Semarang—and strengthening capacity recovery on existing routes.

With the China market reopening and Chinese carriers making a comeback, Changi stands ready to support further reinstatement of passenger flights to the market. We have since recovered 22 out of 37 of our city links and look forward to adding more this year.

Which markets are unserved/underserved from Singapore?

To anchor ourselves as a premier hub in the region, we are always looking to grow our connectivity to more destinations within Southeast Asia. Some of the new destinations we are exploring include Padang and Banda Aceh in Indonesia; Hai Phong and Da Lat in Vietnam; and Puerto Princessa in the Philippines.

The North America region has always been an important long-haul market for Changi. We are currently connected via Singapore Airlines and United Airlines to seven airports in that region (New York John F. Kennedy, Newark, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston and Vancouver). There are many considerations for airlines when starting long-haul services, considering the distances involved and the aircraft technology required to enable non-stop operations. However, we will continue to seek out new opportunities with like-minded partners, to expand connectivity for both Changi and our airline partners.

Next up, we are looking forward to Air Canada’s nonstop Vancouver-Singapore service which will start from April 2024. Air Canada’s services to Changi will not only expand our connectivity to North America, they will also allow us to grow transfer traffic via both hubs. Changi will be a gateway to Southeast Asia, India and Western Australia for travellers from North America, while travelers can use Vancouver as a hub to access other cities such as Toronto and Chicago.

What market development support do you offer? Have you changed your strategy since the pandemic?

We have always been very keen to work with airline partners to pursue win-win route development opportunities to capture growth in demand for air travel into and out of Asia, with Singapore as the premier hub in the region. Even during the pandemic, we worked with airline partners to launch and sustain services to new destinations. One example is Aircalin’s Nouméa-Singapore services, where CAG supported the interline partnership between Air France and Aircalin, generating passenger demand for the new flights. In addition, we collaborated with Aircalin and New Caledonia Tourism to promote the new route and destination in Singapore.

While passenger traffic has been recovering steadily over the last 12 months, full recovery should not be taken for granted, and there remains a need to drive passenger demand. For example, before the pandemic, about two-thirds of Southeast Asia’s international visitors were from beyond the region, while one-third was from within Southeast Asia. With the close proximity of neighbouring countries and travellers still revenge-travelling whenever there are public holidays and long weekends, there are many opportunities for us to collaborate with like-minded partners on demand-generation activities to boost tourism within the region.

As we rebuild and grow passenger traffic beyond pre-pandemic traffic volumes, we are mindful to balance growth with our airport’s handling capacity. Apart from infrastructural upgrades to inject capacity, we also continuously collaborate with our airport partners and leverage automation and technology to ensure optimisation of resources in supporting more flights and increased traffic.

What infrastructure developments are underway at SIN? 

To ensure future growth, we are working hard to make sure that we have the capacity to support the increase in flights and passenger volumes. Come October, the northern wing of Terminal 2 will reopen after its refurbishment, bringing Changi Airport’s total capacity to 90 million passengers per annum. In Terminal 1, we are expanding the arrival immigration halls and adding more automated lanes for immigration clearance, leveraging technology to improve productivity.

We are also working on transforming the passenger journey through the airport into a passport-less one. From bag drop to immigration to boarding, passengers can soon look forward to breezing through the airport without having to present their passports. Our first trials for this passport-less travel are targeted for July, and airlines will be progressively onboarded.

The Changi East development will also provide future capacity for Changi Airport. Spanning a massive 1,080 hectares, the development will serve to secure Singapore’s air hub status and ensure its continued competitiveness and relevance. As Changi Airport’s largest expansion project to date, with the total area of works equivalent to 667 football fields, the development includes Changi Airport’s fifth terminal, Terminal 5 (T5), a three-runway system, the construction of underground systems, landside and aviation support facilities, and the Changi East Industrial Zone.

Specifically, T5 will be linked to the other terminals at Changi Airport, allowing the expanded Changi Airport to be operated as a single, integrated airport for ease of transfer between different terminals with airfield operational efficiency. With a handling capacity of about 50 million passenger movements per year, T5 will be designed with the flexibility to be built in two phases, in line with traffic growth, and is expected to be operational around the mid-2030s.

As the Overall Winner at the Routes Asia 2023 Awards, SIN will be a finalist at the Routes World 2023 Awards in Istanbul. Voting for the awards is now open through Aug. 11.