Passenger traffic in Changi Airport rise 10 fold in H122 vs H121

The airport handled about 8.9 million passengers.

Passenger traffic in Changi Airport in the first half of 2022 rose almost 10-fold from the same period last year, Minister for Transport (MOT), S. Iswaran, revealed.

In a response to a query from The Parliament, Iswaran said the airport handled about 8.9 million passengers in H1 2022 which is 28% of pre-pandemic traffic in H1 2019.

Traffic was strong, particularly during the June school holidays, which averaged around 50% of pre-pandemic weekly passenger traffic, said the minister.

"Changi’s strong passenger traffic recovery is due to the re-opening of Singapore’s borders to all fully-vaccinated travellers and removal of testing requirements in April, as well as many Asia-Pacific countries also re-opening their borders around that time," Iswaran said.

To support the aviation sector's recovery, Iswaran said Changi's capacity will be increased. This will be done through the reopening of Terminal 4 in September and the South Departure Hall in Terminal 2 in October.

The reopening of the two areas will allow the airport to handle "up to pre-COVID passenger traffic levels, or about 70 million passengers per annum," according to Iswaran.

Apart from capacity expansion, Iswaran said the MOT, the Civil Aviation, and the Changi Airport Group (CAG) are also working closely to ramp up the aviation workforce.

"The sector is also working together on initiatives to profile the wide range of job opportunities. These include the sector-wide OneAviation Careers event held in May and the OneAviation Careers Hub web portal that will be launched later this year," said the minister.