India 5th among top passenger markets for Changi Airport

India was ranked fifth among the top five largest passenger markets for Singapore's Changi Airport, which handled 328,000 flights and 58.9 million passengers in 2023, rebounding to 83 per cent of traffic levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to official data released on Wednesday. Indonesia topped the airport's passenger market in 2023, followed by Malaysia, Australia, Thailand and India, as per the latest figures released by the Changi Airport Group (CAG). India was the sixth travel traffic generator for the Changi Airport in 2019. Before the pandemic hit in 2019, the airport had registered 68.3 million passenger movements.

The 2023 traffic passing through Changi airport was also an 83 per cent increase from the 32.2 million passengers the airport handled in 2022. About 328,000 flights took off from or landed at Changi Airport in 2023, the data stated, as against 382,000 flights it handled in 2019. Between October and December 2023, the airport recorded 16.1 million passenger movements, surpassing 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. December was the busiest month of the year, with 5.8 million passengers moving through the airport. This was 91 per cent of traffic levels in December 2019. The airport recorded its busiest day of the year on Dec 22, the Friday before Christmas, with 203,000 passengers passing through its terminals.

In December, 30,400 flights landed at or departed from the airport. Quoting CAG, The Straits Times newspaper reported that all the regions to which the airport is connected are recording healthy recovery in passenger traffic from pre-pandemic levels. North America was the region that recorded the greatest growth of more than 25 per cent, compared to 2019. Meanwhile, Europe, the South-west Pacific (comprising Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands such as Fiji) and South Asia are near full recovery, rebounding to more than 90 per cent of passenger traffic levels in 2019, the report said.

Compared to 2022, North-east Asia was Changi Airport's leading region in 2023, with passenger traffic increasing more than four times that of the previous year. This was mostly due to a rise in travel between China and Singapore. China had gradually loosened its Covid-19 controls from January 2023. Singapore later became one of the first countries China allowed its citizens to travel to in tour groups. Last July, China reinstated 15-day visa-free entry for Singaporeans. Among the airport's top 10 markets, China, Japan and South Korea were the fastest growing in 2023 compared to 2022.

The busiest routes to and from the airport throughout the year were Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Bangkok in Thailand, Jakarta in Indonesia, Denpasar in Bali, Indonesia, and Manila in the Philippines. However, Changi Airport's cargo flows dipped 6 per cent compared to 2022 amid global economic uncertainty and inflationary pressures, the report said.