Changi Airport traffic crosses 90% of pre-pandemic levels for first time, fuelled by S. Korea travel - The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - Passenger traffic between Singapore and South Korea eclipsed pre-pandemic levels by 36 per cent in October. This makes South Korea the fastest-growing market for Changi Airport in 2023, the airport’s operator said on Nov 28.

This growth has, in turn, helped to drive the airport’s post-pandemic rebound, with overall passenger figures in October recovering to 90.7 per cent of 2019 levels, the highest percentage since Covid-19 struck.

This is also the first time monthly passenger traffic has crossed 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, said Changi Airport Group (CAG).

The previous peak was in May, when the recovery stood at 89.5 per cent.

Since then, the recovery rate has been hovering below 90 per cent, due to the number of visitor arrivals to Singapore, CAG said.

In October, 5.12 million travellers passed through the airport, compared with 5.65 million in October 2019, according to data released by CAG and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore.

About 28,700 commercial flights took off from or landed at Changi, amounting to 89.8 per cent of the flights in October 2019.

CAG said the South Korean market has seen the strongest recovery so far in 2023 among the airport’s top 10 markets. Behind it are India, which is at 102 per cent of pre-pandemic levels compared with 2019, and Australia, at 94 per cent.

About 209,000 passengers travelled between Singapore and South Korea in October, compared with 153,000 in October 2019. In the first 10 months of 2023, 1.8 million passengers travelled between the two countries, compared with 1.32 million over the same period in 2019.

For comparison, Changi Airport’s top market in October was Indonesia, with 605,876 passenger movements. Markets with similar passenger traffic numbers as South Korea in October include the Philippines (210,878) and Vietnam (195,346).

CAG said passenger traffic between South Korea and Singapore had recovered to above 2019 levels since January, outperforming pre-Covid-19 numbers by at least 25 per cent each month.

It attributed this to the growth in traffic between the Republic and the South Korean cities of Seoul and Busan, as well as low-cost carrier Scoot’s launch of flights to and from Jeju island in June 2022.

CAG said Seoul is now Changi Airport’s sixth-largest city link by passenger traffic. It was 12th in 2019. In October 2023, 186,000 passengers travelled between Changi Airport and Seoul’s Incheon Airport, compared with 142,000 in October 2019.

Another factor behind the growing demand has been a corresponding increase in flight capacity by airlines.

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