Singapore Traffic Increases to 31% of Pre-Covid Levels With Border Reopening

Singapore is seeing positive outcomes from its efforts to open borders and relax requirements for fully vaccinated travellers. Passengers are increasingly migrating through Singapore Changi Airport, boosted by a drop in COVID severity and the promise of virtually unfettered travel this summer, according to figures released by the island nation’s aviation regulator. The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said on April 18th that the number of passengers transiting through Changi Airport in the previous week accounted for 31% of the average weekly passenger traffic in 2019. Passenger footfall was 18 % last month, but 400,000 passengers travelled via Singapore in the week ending on Sunday, indicating how the recent opening of the border has altered these statistics. Han Kok Juan, director-general of the CAAS, said, “We are seeing good air travel recovery and expect numbers to further increase, especially in the upcoming May Day-Hari Raya Puasa long weekend and the June school holiday season.” The number of passenger flights to and from Singapore climbed to 38 % of pre-pandemic levels in the latest week, up from 29 % a month before, according to the aviation authorities. All major markets had higher traffic, with strong rise in traffic to and from Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. Of course, the numbers are still low when compared to pre-COVID days, when Singapore handled 68 million passenger movements, but the new results have given CAAS confidence that Singapore will regain half of its pre-Covid-19 passenger traffic by the end of the year.