The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) celebrated the first birthday of its Budget Terminal (BT) today by announcing that more than 1.36m passengers used the facility in the last year, with close to a

120% increase in weekly flights.

Served by two low-cost carriers (LCCs), Tiger Airways and Cebu Pacific Airways, the BT is today linked to 18 cities in the Asia Pacific region. As part of an event to celebrate the BT's first birthday, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) organised a live shopping game for five passengers, winners of a recent shopping promotion at the BT, to vie for the grand prize of a S$10,000 ($6,587) travel package.

With a virtual budget of $326 (marking the BT's birth date, March 26, 2006), each of the five contestants had to shop for 10 out of 60 products retailed at the BT. The contestant whose total amount in his or her shopping basket is closest to the virtual budget wins the grand prize.

In the first month of BT's operations last year, the average number of passengers handled per month was about 72,000. Today, the figure has grown to more than 130,000, representing an increase of about 80%. With higher travel demand during the year-end holidays, passenger movements peaked in December 2006 when 173,000 passengers used the terminal.

As at 25 March 2007, the BT has received more than 1.36m passengers with what it describes as ‘a fair mix’ of Singaporeans and foreigners, especially Chinese, Thai, Filipino and Vietnamese passengers.

The frequency of flights has also increased from 124 weekly flights (when the BT commenced operations) to 276 (as at 1 March 2007), of which 250 flights are operated by Tiger Airways and 26 flights by Cebu Pacific. The number of city links has also increased by 50%, from 12 to 18 cities in seven countries, with Tiger Airways launching flights to the popular Australian destination of Perth just three days ago.

The other new links are to Guangzhou, Haikou, Macau, Shenzhen and Udon Thani. Some other popular travel destinations among passengers at the BT include Bangkok, Clark Field, Ho Chi Minh City and Phuket.

The strong performance of the Budget Terminal shows that the terminal has provided good support for the healthy growth of LCCs at Changi Airport. As at 1 March 2007, LCCs in Singapore operate 566 weekly flights to 27 cities, which accounts for 14.6% of total passenger flights at Changi Airport, compared to 10.5% in April 2006.

Wong Woon Liong, CAAS Director-General said: ‘The healthy progress made by the Budget Terminal today is testimony that the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore had made a right decision to build a customised terminal to meet the operational requirements of low-cost carriers. We are delighted to witness the healthy passenger traffic growth at the Budget Terminal over the last twelve months.

?Airport shop sales have also seen good growth, in tandem with our growth in passenger volume and supported by the various interesting and unique shopping deals organised by CAAS.

‘Retail and food and beverage sales have increased by more than 80% and 60% respectively, compared to sales performance a year ago. CAAS will continue to work closely with our airline partners and airport retailers to sustain this healthy and encouraging performance.’

A six-week shopping promotion 'Strike it Big' was also held from 5 February to 18 March 2007. Besides attractive discounts of up to 70%, a weekly lucky draw allowed passengers who made purchases at any of the 13 retail and five food and beverage outlets to stand to win up to 10 times of what they spent and 20 times if they had made payments by VISA.