Singapore Changi Airport registered 3.39mn passenger movements in February 2011

Passenger traffic was boosted by strong travel demand over the Lunar New Year holiday which this year was spread over a long weekend.

According to Changi Airport Group, the passenger movement is up 9.1% compared to a year ago.

Southeast and Northeast Asia continued to be the growth drivers, with traffic to these regions increasing by double digits.

Changi Airport handled 22,000 flights in February, an increase of 12.2% year-on-year. Of these, some 6,200 flights, or 28%, were flown by low cost carriers (LCCs). Tiger Airways increased flights to Bangkok, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, Macau, and Manila. AirAsia increased frequencies to Penang and Miri while Thai AirAsia started a new daily service to Chiang Mai. In addition, Firefly also introduced 10 additional weekly services to Kuala Lumpur.

Pekanbaru, the capital of Indonesia’s Riau province, and the Malaysian resort island of Redang became new city links for Changi as SilkAir and Berjaya Air started services to the two destinations respectively. Changi will be connected to the South American continent for the first time when Singapore Airlines begins thrice-weekly services to Sao Paulo via Barcelona on 28 March 2011.

Changi Airport handled 128,048 tonnes of cargo in February, a decline of 1.9% compared to a year ago due to the Lunar New Year holidays. Changi handled 275,272 tonnes of cargo in the first two months of the year, an increase of 1.3% compared to 2010. Shipment to and from Europe and Americas contributed to the growth in airfreight movement.