Singapore's Changi Airport is seeing a much busier month following the
country's opening to all fully vaccinated travellers from 1 April.
Air
passenger traffic in Singapore reached 400,000, or 31% of pre-Covid
levels, in the week ending 17 April 2022, according to Civil Aviation
Authority of Singapore (CAAS). This represents an 18% jump from a month
ago.
All major markets posted an increase in traffic volume, with
particularly strong growth for traffic to and from Australia, Malaysia,
Indonesia and Thailand. Direct traffic also grew for both international
and local travellers, with Singapore citizens and permanent residents
making up 32% of total direct traffic.
The number of passenger flights also rose 38% of pre-Covid levels in
the week ending 17 April 2022, up 29% from a month ago, boosted by an
increase in the frequency of flights to and from Australia, India,
Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Three airlines, namely Air New Zealand, Myanmar Airways International
and PT. Batik Air Indonesia, restarted scheduled passenger flights to
Singapore. Air links were also re-established with five new cities,
namely Cairns, Da Nang, Kota Kinabalu, Madurai and Riyadh.
Han Kok Juan, director-general of the CAAS, said, “It has been just
two weeks since we reopened our borders more broadly. We are seeing good
air travel recovery and expect numbers to further increase, especially
in the upcoming May Day-Hari Raya Puasa long weekend and the June school
holiday season.
Singapore is on track to restoring 50% of pre-Covid passenger volume by this year, according to CAAS.
Bloomberg reported that nearly 65% of the shops in Changi’s transit
area are now open, reaching almost 90% in the public areas of Terminals 1
and 3.
Duty-free operator Lotte Duty Free will soon open one of its
largest-ever stores at Changi Airport, while Singapore Airlines has
completely refurbished its business and first-class lounges at Terminal 3
during the pandemic, the Bloomberg report added.
There is no immediate plans to reopen Terminal 4, although Terminal 2
is expected to restore operations in phases later this year.