Passenger traffic at Singapore’s Changi Airport should return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024, or possibly earlier. (Photo: AFP/VNA)The minister told the Parliament that passengertraffic volumes, flights and city links at Changi are now at about 80% ofpre-COVID-19 levels, while flights at Seletar Airport have recovered fullysince January 2023.
In 2019, a total of 68.3 million passengers passedthrough Changi Airport, with 382,000 commercial flights taking off or landingat the airport.
Passenger traffic fell to a low of 0.5% of thistotal during the pandemic in 2020.
Iswaran noted that weekly flight services fromSingapore to China have more than doubled from 38 in January to nearly 100 now.
While this is a quarter of the weekly flights toChina that were available in 2019, Chinese and Singaporean carriers are expectedto resume more services in the coming months, he added.
The aviation workforce – currently at 90% ofpre-pandemic levels – is also expected to recover fully by 2023, he said.
Regarding the construction of Terminal 5, Iswaransaid land preparation and drainage works at Changi East have been completed andconstruction on the mega project is expected to start by 2025.
Authorities are working with consultants toupdate the terminal’s design so that it is more modular, resilient andenergy-efficient, he added.
Slated to be operational in the mid-2030s, T5 willserve 50 million passengers a year, more than T1 and T3 combined.
The Changi East development, which includes T5,support facilities and a new industrial zone, is expected to cost tens ofbillions of dollars./.
VNA
