Singapore airport reconnects with South Asian cities, adds Pune to network

Singapore's Changi Airport has re-established its link to all South Asian cities to the pre-pandemic level and added Pune to its network, reporting a strong rebound in passenger traffic, according to a media report on Sunday.

Up to 150,000 passengers are passing through Changi Airport daily, with about a million each week, or about 75 per cent of the average weekly passenger pre-pandemic, The Straits Times newspaper quoted Transport Minister S Iswaran.

The airport is said to see a strong rebound in passenger traffic as the number of passengers and flight movements steadily climbed over the months.

Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand were the top traffic markets in the first 10 months when the airport handled 23.6 million passengers, representing 42 per cent of its pre-Covid-19 traffic, The Straits Times reported.

The strongest passenger traffic recovery came from North America, South Asia, and Europe.

Despite the uptick, the airport is well-equipped to handle the higher volume, the Minister said in a Facebook post, citing the reopenings of Terminal 4 and the southern wing of Terminal 2, which took place on September 13 and October 11, respectively.

The daily traffic is more than twice the number that passed through the airport when Singapore first reopened its borders to vaccinated travellers in April.

Changi Airport Group (CAG) said 2022 had been a year of strong recovery, as the number of passengers and flight movements steadily climbed over the months.

As of the first week of December 2022, 95 airlines operated over 5,500 weekly scheduled flights at Changi Airport, connecting Singapore to some 140 cities in 48 countries and territories worldwide, it said, adding this was 82 per cent of the pre-pandemic connectivity.

CAG said: Passenger traffic to and from North America has rebounded strongly to exceed pre-pandemic levels. For the South Asia market, apart from re-establishing all pre-Covid-19 city links, Changi added a new one to Pune on December 2.