Singapore airport traffic hits record, fuelled by casinos

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Passenger traffic at Singapore’s Changi Airport jumped 11.4 percent in December and hit a record in 2011, boosted by increased travel within the Asia-Pacific region, the Southeast Asian city-state’s airport operator said.

“December 2011 was Changi Airport’s busiest month ever with 4.53 million passenger movements,” Changi Airport Group said in a statement on Friday.

A prime destination mainly for bankers and businessmen, Singapore has been drawing tourists with a slew of new attractions, the most popular being two casino-complexes built at a cost of more than $10 billion.

The two casinos and their related attractions represent the new face of a city that wants to transform itself from regional trade and financial centre into a place for both work and play and emerge as Asia’s Monte Carlo.

For the whole of 2011, Changi Airport handled 46.5 million passengers, up 10.7 percent from a year ago. Low-cost carriers accounted for one in four passengers last year, up from one in five in 2010.

The tiny city-state, has near-zero crime and sparkling clean streets but also flogging, the death penalty, and a ban on chewing gum.

Changi Airport is one of Asia’s largest air hubs, connecting Singapore to 210 cities in 60 countries. The airport serves more than 100 airlines and is a base for several carriers including Singapore Airlines, Tiger Airways and Qantas’ JetStar Asia.

Changi Airport handled 167,000 tonnes of cargo last month, an increase of 6.9 percent from a year ago. The volume of cargo handled was the highest in three years, Changi Airport said.