Changi Airport crosses landmark 50 m passenger mark in 2012

Singapore Changi Airport experienced its busiest month ever in December 2012 to cross the 50-million passenger movements mark for the first time in the airport’s 31-year history.

Passenger traffic for the year totalled 51.2 million, increasing by 10.0% over the whole of 2011. Flight movements grew 7.6% to 324,700 while cargo volumes declined 3.2% to 1.81 million tonnes, suppressed by uncertainties in the global economy.

For December 2012, Changi Airport registered 4.92 million passenger movements, a growth of 8.6% year-on-year. Changi’s daily record was broken on 22 December 2012, the Saturday before Christmas Day, with 180,400 passengers passing through during the 24 hours. There were 29,000 landings and take-offs last month, 4.7% more than a year ago. The airport ended the year by handling 152,900 tonnes of airfreight in December, 8.2% less than a year before. As at 1 January 2013, Changi Airport handles more than 6,500 weekly scheduled flights with 110 airlines connecting Singapore to 240 cities in 60 countries around the world. Changi Airport’s full year passenger, cargo and aircraft movements statistics are provided in Annex A and are also available at

Despite weak market conditions in the Eurozone, there was encouraging improvement in demand for travel to and from Europe. In 2012, passenger traffic between Singapore and Europe grew 7.5%.

Closer to home, Changi continued to experience strong growth in South Asia (12.4%), Northeast Asia (9.9%), Southeast Asia (9.7%) and Southwest Pacific (9.4%) regions, accentuating its position as a key air hub in Asia Pacific.

In terms of Changi’s busiest routes, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Manila occupied the top five positions in 2012.

Within the top 10, Bangkok and Tokyo saw robust increases of more than 10%, as traffic recovered following the floods in Thailand, and the earthquake in Japan in 2011.

Changi Airport also enjoyed positive growth to and from gateway hubs. Beijing, Frankfurt and Guangzhou registered the strongest percentage increase in passenger traffic to and from Singapore, among sectors with at least half a million passengers.

Besides increasing demand on traditional gateway routes, Changi Airport’s connectivity to secondary cities was also enhanced during the year – Australia’s Gold Coast, Paro in Bhutan, Taiyuan in China, Visakhapatnam in India, Padang in Indonesia, Kota Bahru in Malaysia and Iloilo in the Philippines were additions to Changi’s global network of city links. During the year, non-stop services were also launched to the Chinese cities Tianjin and Wuhan.

 As at 1 January 2013, Changi Airport is connected to 25 cities in China. In 2012, Changi Airport welcomed five new carriers. Singapore-based Scoot commenced operations at Changi, providing travellers with more choice with its low cost medium haul offerings to destinations in Australia, China, Japan and Taiwan. Other airlines that started services at Changi included Bhutan flag-carrier Drukair, AirAsia Philippines, Shenzhen Airlines and all-cargo carrier Yangtze River Express.

On the cargo front, economic uncertainty in many parts of the world dampened airfreight volumes at Changi Airport. Shipments to and from China and the United States, Changi’s top cargo markets, declined after positive growth in 2011.

Despite the downward pressure on cargo volumes, niche segments such as perishables, live animals and pharmaceuticals grew during the year. Notably, Changi also achieved growth in cargo tonnage to and from Africa and the Oceania region.