Singapore Changi Airport announced today that it handled 3.77m passengers in May 2011, an 11.3% increase compared to May 2010. Aircraft movements during the month totalled 24,994, a 12.8% increase year-on-year, and an all-time monthly record for the Airport. Changi also opened 25 new retail and F&B outlets in the month.

Traffic within South-East Asia registered the strongest year-on-year growth of 17.7%, followed by traffic to the South-West Pacific (14.4%). Traffic to Northeast Asia also grew by 6.8%, despite declines of 11.4% and 9.2% for passenger movements between Singapore and Tokyo and Japan respectively.

The Changi Airport Group (CAG) said that low-cost carriers (LCCs) continued to expand rapidly during the month. Passenger traffic on LCCs grew 24.6% compared to a year ago and accounted for 28% of Changi’s total.

INCREASED SERVICES
Full service carriers grew 7.3% in terms of passenger movements and during the month, Changi welcomed the commencement of Finnair’s daily service connecting Helsinki to Singapore. 

Garuda Indonesia also launched a daily service on June 1, linking Singapore to Makassar, the largest city on Sulawesi Island. CSG says that the addition of Helsinki and Makassar brings to seven the number of new city links connected to Changi this year.

On the cargo front, air freight movements in May totalled 157,286 tonnes, an increase of 2.7%. For the January to May period, cargo movements were up 3.5% to 754,517 tonnes.

NEW RETAIL AND F&B
Meanwhile, other highlights at Changi in May included the opening of 25 new retail and F&B outlets. These included SingKids Playsystem, Southeast-Asia’s first child-friendly moveable playsystem, at Terminal 3 Basement 2 Mall and Gucci, Hugo Boss and Salvatore Ferragamo stores at Terminal 1’s Transit Mall. 

All three fashion houses now have a presence in all of Changi’s main terminals. Firsts at Changi in May also included Jimmy Choo’s new line of fragrance and two new products from SKII – Wrinkle Specialist & Skin Signature Eye Cream. 

These products are only available at Changi Airport’s Transit Malls as worldwide exclusives until July 14 2011.