Passenger traffic at Changi Airport should return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024, or possibly earlier, said Singapore’s Transport Minister S. Iswaran in the Parliament.
S. Iswaran told the House that passenger traffic volumes, flights and city links at Changi are now at about 80 percent of pre-Covid-19 levels, while flights at Seletar Airport have recovered fully since January 2023.
In 2019, 68.3 million passengers passed through Changi Airport, with 3,82,000 commercial flights taking off or landing at the airport. Passenger traffic fell to a low of 0.5 percent of this total during the pandemic in 2020.
Singapore’s aviation sector has made a strong recovery from the debilitating impact of the pandemic. The weekly flight services from Singapore to China have more than doubled from 38 in January to nearly 100. As this is a quarter of the weekly flights to China compared to those in 2019, the Chinese and Singapore carriers are expected to resume more services in the coming months. The aviation workforce – currently at 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels – is also expected to recover fully by 2023.
The authorities are working with consultants to update the upcoming Terminal 5’s design so that it is more modular, resilient and energy-efficient. Scheduled to be operational in the mid-2030s, T5 will serve 50 million passengers a year.
