Flights at Changi Airport soared by a record 12.8 % to 24,994 in May

Passenger traffic also increased by 11.3% to 3.77m.

In a release, Changi said Southeast Asia traffic registered the strongest year-on-year growth of 17.7%, followed by traffic to Southwest Pacific (14.4%). Traffic to Northeast Asia grew 6.8% despite declines of 11.4% and 9.2% for passenger movements between Singapore and Tokyo and Japan respectively.

Low cost carriers (LCCs) continued to expand rapidly during the month. Passenger traffic on LCCs grew 24.6% compared to a year ago and accounted for 28% of Changi’s total. Full service carriers grew 7.3% in terms of passenger movements.

During the month, Changi Airport welcomed the commencement of Finnair’s daily service connecting Helsinki to Singapore. Garuda Indonesia also launched a daily service on 1 June linking Singapore to Makassar, the largest city on Sulawesi Island. The addition of Helsinki and Makassar brings to seven the number of new city links connected to Changi this year.

On the cargo front, airfreight movements in May totalled 157,286 tonnes, an increase of 2.7%. For the Jan-May period, cargo movements were up 3.5% to 754,517 tonnes.