As Changi Airport Group (CAG) CEO Lee Seow Hiang puts it succinctly, 2015 ‘was a year of two halves’ with a relatively weak first six months for the airport, followed by a much better second period with added airline capacity stimulating healthier growth.

 

Having said that, the only significant negative month in the first half of the year was January (-3.8%), although February, March and April all reported sub one per cent growth.

 

‘Resilient’ is how CAG describes the overall performance, even though it set new records for both passenger traffic and aircraft movements, handling 55.4m passengers (+2.5%) and 346,330 landings and take-offs (+1.4%) during 2015.  By contrast, cargo and airfreight movements ‘remained stable’ at 1.85m tonnes for the year.

 

 

MONTHLY AND DAILY RECORDS BROKEN

The year also ended relatively stronger with Changi registering 5.29m passengers (+3.9% on-year), in December – the highest monthly traffic total ever achieved over a four week period since the airport opened in 1981.

 

CAG reports that the daily traffic record was also broken on Saturday 19 December 2015 when more than 192,000 passengers were processed in 24 hours.

 

More broadly, traffic was actually positive for most of the airport’s top 10 country markets, led by Thailand (+12.5%), Vietnam (+7.2%) and China (+7.0%) registering the strongest growth.  However, traffic from Indonesia (-7.3%) and Hong Kong (-1.2%) fell, with passenger traffic to Singapore undoubtedly hit by the strength of the Singapore dollar against some regional currencies.

 

Changi’s busiest routes last year continued to led by Jakarta 3.79m passenger movements, followed by Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Manila.

 

 

 

 

ATTRACTING NEW AIRLINES

Bangkok was Changi’s second fastest growing route amongst all destinations, with at least half a million passengers handled in 2015. CAG said that Colombo, Guangzhou, Mumbai and Tokyo rounded up the top five.

 

Commenting on the overall performance and adding analysis, Changi Airport Group CEO Lee Seow Hiang, said: “2015 was a year of two halves for Changi Airport. Following 2014, which saw a number of airline incidents in the region and depressed yields for many regional carriers, we had a relatively weak first six months with flat growth for the period.

 

“Nevertheless, we pressed on to actively woo new airlines and seek growth opportunities with existing ones and our efforts have yielded some positive outcomes. We have seen both full-service and low-cost carriers add capacity in recent months and this has resulted in stronger passenger growth of about 5% for the second half of the year.

 

“Going forward, economic uncertainty in many markets, made worse by lacklustre business and consumer confidence, may dampen travel demand in the near term.  However, low fuel prices should support airlines’ profitability.

 

 

NEW CONNECTIONS ESTABLISHED

“The outlook for Changi is also bolstered by positive developments such as the addition of new city links and airlines in the coming months. These include Singapore Airlines’ new services to Düsseldorf, Canberra and Wellington in the second half of this year, as well as the arrival of Fiji Airways’ new direct service from Nadi in April.

 

“Closer to our hub, Asia continues to present exciting growth opportunities, with untapped tourism potential in many parts of the continent, and growing affluence in the emerging economies driving air travel.

 

“Here, Changi Airport is well placed to capture future growth with our expanding network, including many secondary cities, to key markets like China, India and Indonesia. We will continue to work closely with our airline partners to establish new connections to develop the Singapore air hub and better serve our passengers.”

 

 

AIRLINE AND ROUTE BOOSTS

CAG adds that seven new carriers commenced operations, with the return of Air New Zealand boosting capacity on the Singapore-Auckland route, while the addition of Batik Air, Thai Lion Air and Myanmar National Airlines strengthened Changi’s connectivity within Southeast Asia.

 

Three other airlines – My Indo Airlines, Polar Air Cargo and AirBridgeCargo – enhanced Changi’s cargo network.

 

Interestingly, Changi also opened nine new destinations last year, including four new Chinese city links to Changchun, Quanzhou, Sanya and Yinchuan. CAG says this strengthens the airport’s position as ‘the most connected airport in Southeast Asia to China’, with a total of 32 city links to the country.

 

In addition, new services also began to Cairns in Australia, Lucknow in India, Luang Prabang in Laos, Pattaya (U-Tapao) in Thailand and Cincinnati in the US.

 

Last, but not least, Changi also received its 500th ‘Best Airport’ award in November 2015 during a year in which it won a total of 28 ‘Best Airport’ awards.

 

Significantly, these included the prestigious World’s Best Airport accolade at the 2015 Skytrax World Airport Awards – an honour achieved for the third year in a row and the sixth time since Changi opened 25 years ago.