Changi Airport's passenger movements up 2.1% to 5.41 million in May

It was fueled by the double digit growth from Australia and Japan.

Changi Airport’s passenger movements grew 2.1% YoY to 5.41 million in May, according to an announcement.

Northeast Asia and Southwest Pacific traffic was able to offset the decline registered from Southeast Asia and South Asia. Amongst Changi’s top 10 markets, Australia (11%) and Japan (13%) achieved double digit growth. Meanwhile, traffic was weaker for India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

The airport revealed that aircraft movements dipped 2% to 31,700 landings and takeoffs, whilst airfreight throughput declined 5% to 172,000 tonnes for the month.

The announcement also noted that Urumqi Air, a new carrier at Changi Airport, commenced thrice-weekly services to Urumqi, China via Wuhan. Lufthansa has increased its Munich service from six times weekly to seven. For its part, Scoot has added three weekly services each to Kaohsiung and Osaka (Kansai), whilst SilkAir has increased its services to Cairns, from five to seven weekly.

New stores and restaurants have also kicked off in the airport, including Sunglass Hut in Terminal 1 and Furla’s new outlet in Terminal 3. In the public areas, Japan Gourmet Hall SORA opened its second airport restaurant in Terminal 1, with three new brands such as Ikkousha, Megumi Maru and Yoshimi, offering a range of Japanese dishes including ramen, mixed rice bowls and katsu curries. New eateries which have opened include Paris Baguette, Canton Paradise and Le Shrimp Ramen in Terminal 3, as well as local specialty product store Wain’s and mini KTV booth Mbar.

As of 1 June, more than 120 airlines operate at Changi Airport. With more than 7,400 weekly scheduled flights, an aircraft takes off or lands at Changi roughly once every 80 seconds.