Changi Airport's QI passenger traffic exceeds pre-Covid-19 levels

30-day visa waiver with China boosts travel as country becomes top market for quarter

- Grace Leong

Some 16.5 million passengers passed through Changi Airport in the first quarter of 2024, surpassing pre-Covid-19 levels on a quarterly basis for the first time, as China became the airport's top market for the quarter.

This was a 0.5 per cent increase from what the airport handled in the first quarter of 2019, airport operator Changi Airport Group (CAG) said in a statement on April 25.

The airport handled 5.43 million passenger movements in January 2024 (96 per cent of the levels seen in January 2019), 5.35 million movements in February 2024 (104.3 per cent of that seen in February 2019), and 5.73 million movements in March 2024 (101.7 per cent of that registered in March 2019).

In the first quarter of 2023, 13 million passengers passed through the airport.

Changi Airport's top five markets for the first quarter of 2024 were China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and Thailand. In 2023, these were Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand and India, with China in sixth place.

CAG said the roll-out on Feb 9 of a mutual 30-day visa-exemption arrangement between Singapore and China boosted travel between both countries, propelling China to the top spot for the quarter.

For the first three months of 2024, Denpasar (Bali), Manila, Taipei, Seoul and Shanghai were among the top 10 cities that outperformed the first quarter of 2019 by more than 10 per cent.

For the quarter, 89,400 flights departed or arrived at the airport -94 per cent of the movements in the first quarter of 2019.

In comparison, there were 74,200 aircraft movements in the same quarter a year ago.