Travelers walk through the transit area at Changi Airport in Singapore. (Photo: Bloomberg) Singapore was among the first in Asia to start easing travelrestrictions by establishing vaccinated travel lanes that ultimately allowedpeople from 32 countries to visit without quarantine. From April, the island state was opened to anyone who is fully inoculated regardless of where they are from.
While waiting for this, Changi was making behind-the-scenesadjustments. Self-check-in kiosks and baggage drops now operate when a personhovers their finger over a screen. Passengers use automated immigration gatesthat scan faces and irises if those biometrics are registered in a passport.Air conditioning and mechanical ventilation has been installed withhospital-grade filters and ultraviolet sanitation systems, and autonomouscleaning robots use misting to disinfect carpets.
And travellers are coming back, gradually. Changi handled1.42 million passengers in the first two months of this year, a jump from263,000 the same period last year. That compares with Hong Kong, which handled157,000 passengers in January and February. The Republic of Korea’s IncheonInternational Airport, ranked No.1 in Asia for international travel in 2021,processed 675,452 passengers in the first two months of 2022.
However, while 81 of the 91 carriers that used to fly intoChangi have restored services, flight frequencies are just 37 percent ofpre-pandemic levels. Last year, the aerodrome handled 3.05 million passengers,a drop from 68 million in 2019 before countries closed their borders.
Singapore aims to restore passenger volume at Changi to atleast 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels by later this year, up from 15 percent atthe end of 2021.
Aviation accounts for more than 5 percent of Singapore’s GDPand provides about 200,000 jobs. The country has allocated nearly 500 millionSGD (367 million USD) to boost tourism recovery./.
VNA
