​Singapore's air passenger traffic recuperates strongly

Overall passenger traffic at Changi Airport rebounded to 90.7% of 2019 levels in October, the highest since COVID-19 struck (Photo: straitstimes.com)

Singapore (VNA) – According to Singapore’s Changi Airport Group (CAG), overall passenger figures in October 2023 recovered to 90.7% of 2019 levels, the highest percentage since the COVID-19 pandemic struck. The main factor contributed to the growth was attributed by passenger traffic between Singapore and the Republic of Korea (RoK) which eclipsed pre-pandemic levels by 36%.

According to data released by CAG and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, in October this year, 5.12 million travellers passed through the airport, compared with 5.65 million in October 2019.

About 28,700 commercial flights took off from or landed at Changi, amounting to 89.8 % of the flights in October 2019.

CAG said the RoK market has seen the strongest recovery so far in 2023 among the airport’s top 10 markets.

CAG said passenger traffic between the RoK and Singapore had recovered to above 2019 levels since the beginning of 2023, outperforming pre- numbers by at least 25 % each month.

It attributed this to the growth in traffic between Singapore and the RoK cities of Seoul and Busan, as well as low-cost carrier Scoot’s launch of flights to and from Jeju island in June 2022.

Another factor behind the growing demand has been a corresponding increase in flight capacity by airlines. Scoot, Jeju Air, Singapore Airlines have increased the number of flights a week between Singapore and the RoK. CAG said there are now six airlines operating flights between the two countries, compared with five before the pandemic.

Other top markets in October of Changi Airport were Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam./.