Asia aviation: Singapore Changi Airport ‘leading Asia Pacific in travel recovery‘– part one
In the battle for 'regional supremacy' (and those battles will be harder fought now, in what could be a no-man's land between two Black Swans) the pandemic recovery and traffic gains being made now could be crucial.
In some regions the travel recovery is progressing equally among countries. But in Asia Pacific that is not the case, with North Asian countries lagging on account of protracted travel restrictions.
That has given airports in Southeast Asia the opportunity to forge an advantage. Singapore's Changi Airport is at the forefront, and claims to be leading the entire Asia Pacific region in that recovery.
The figures look promising, but the authorities have a big decision still to make on the provision of future capacity needs - one that was put off during the pandemic, and where intentions appear to remain vague.
This is part one of a two-part report.
Summary
- Changi Airport 'leading the region' in passenger pandemic recovery.
- Freight carriage is slightly down.
- The top five country markets are all in the immediate region, but China is absent.
- Capacity is at 73% of 2019 level in first week of Feb-2023, which is better than at peer airports.
Changi Airport Group claims to be leading the region in pandemic recovery
Singapore's Changi Airport Group (CAG) says it has strengthened airport offerings and continued to engage airline partners over the past two years, in anticipation of a travel revival.
Singapore Changi Airport says it is "now leading the Asia Pacific region in travel recovery", and the management is "confident" that the group can progressively restore Changi's connectivity and traffic to pre-COVID levels.
Changi Airport handled 32.2 million passenger movements in 2022, reaching almost half of the traffic level as it was in 2019, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. That result is a 975% increase over the previous year, when tough restrictions on personal entry and movements were still in place.
Before the COVID pandemic there had been steady passenger increases, of the order of 4-5%.
Singapore Changi Airport: annual traffic, passenger numbers/growth, 2013-2023
Freight throughput slightly down
Aircraft movements totalled 219,000: 57.2% of 2019 levels and a 100% increase over 2021.
But airfreight throughput registered 1.85 million tonnes for 2022, which represented a year-on-year decline of 4.8%.
However, freight carryings did not drop off to the same degree as passenger numbers during 2020-22.
Singapore Changi Airport: annual traffic, cargo volume/growth, 2013-2023
North America exceeded pre-COVID levels
In 2022 all regions registered strong recovery in passenger traffic, with North America even slightly exceeding pre-COVID levels on a full-year basis, and Southwest Pacific, South Asia, and Europe each reaching two thirds of 2019 traffic.
In Southeast Asia there has also been a robust pickup in traffic following the region's reopening, closing out the year with a new high of two million passenger movements in Dec-2022, representing over three quarters of Dec-2019 traffic.
The chart below is of the distribution of departing seats by region in the week commencing 06-Feb-2023.
As one might expect, Asia as a whole predominates, with Western Europe the largest region for capacity outside Asia.
Singapore Changi Airport: international departing seats by region, week commencing 06-Feb-2023
Top five country markets all in the immediate region, but China absent
Changi Airport's top five country passenger markets for the year were, in order, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Thailand.
Similarly to the figures in 2019, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Jakarta were Changi Airport's three busiest city markets in 2022.
The Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route is currently the world's busiest international route based on seat capacity.
Those statistics are broadly represented in the chart below, for the week commencing 06-Feb-2023, which indicates that all five of those countries continue to top the seat capacity league - albeit in a different order.
The notable absences are China and Hong Kong.
Singapore Changi Airport: international departing seats by country/territory, week commencing 06-Feb-2023
Cargo flows dipped slightly against the backdrop of global economic uncertainty and inflationary pressures.
Changi's top five air cargo markets for the year were, in order: China, Australia, United States of America, Hong Kong and Japan.
Available cargo payload in the week commencing 06-Feb-2023 varies a little, with China, Hong Kong and Australia topping the list, Japan slipping down it, and the US not in the top 10.
Singapore Changi Airport: international total cargo payload (kg) by country/territory, week commencing 06-Feb-2023
Strongest traffic in Dec-2022
Passenger traffic continued to grow throughout 2022 and reached a high in December, with 4.62 million passenger movements recorded. This was 72% of Changi Airport's traffic in Dec-2019.
In the busiest week of the year (12-Dec-2022 to 18-Dec-2022) there were more than 1.07 million passengers passing through Changi's terminals, or 82% of the weekly average in 2019.
For the month, aircraft movements registered 25,400, reaching 76% of pre-COVID levels.
Airfreight throughput, compared to Dec-2021, fell 17.3%, to 153,000 tonnes.
New airlines boost South Korea traffic
Among Changi's top 10 markets, South Korea experienced passenger traffic growth beyond pre-COVID levels in Dec-2022. This was driven in part by additional capacity from Changi's airline partners, including new airlines T'way Air and Air Premia on the Singapore-Seoul route, and Scoot plying a new Singapore-Jeju route.
The reopening of Terminals 2 and 4 has helped restore airport capacity to cater to strong travel demand.
New routes include those of Ethiopian Airlines, which will launch flights from Addis Ababa in Mar-2023.
Notwithstanding near term challenges, such as global economic uncertainty and inflationary pressures (which could be more than 'near term'), CAG is confident that it will progressively be able to restore Changi Airport's connectivity and traffic to pre-COVID levels.