Budget airlines boost Singapore
SINGAPORE: Singapore’s Budget Terminal is currently handling 130,000 passengers a month – up 80 percent from just a year ago when it first opened.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said the Budget Terminal has received more than 1.36 million passengers to date.
The terminal – served by Tiger Airways and Cebu Pacific Airways – operates 276 flights weekly, up from 124 when it started in 2006.
The number of cities linked to the Budget Terminal has also gone up from 12 to 18 cities.
CAAS said low-cost carriers operate 566 weekly flights to 27 cities from Singapore and this accounts for 14.6 percent of total passenger flights at Changi Airport.
Confirmation of the growing influence of budget carriers comes on the back of a report from the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) which predicts Asia Pacific airports will be the key beneficiaries of the predicted surge in airline capacity and entrants in 2007 and beyond.
But CAPA’s latest Aviation Outlook report warns, “Major challenges face the airport sector in Asia, among them the provision of enough capacity, funding development, and matching appropriate facilities to a rapidly segmenting airline sector.”
CAPA executive chairman, Peter Harbison, said, “Strong predicted traffic growth will exacerbate capacity shortages at many Asia Pacific airports in the years ahead and a determined approach to developing fresh capacity is vital.
“Some of Asia’s leading airports are operating close to or beyond design capacity, due to continued strong traffic demand. The capacity shortages run the risk of undermining hub competitiveness, not to mention inconvenience to passengers.”
Harbison said problems were most severe at airports serving the fast-growing emerging markets, including China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released February traffic results showing that international passenger demand continued its strong start to the year with an increase of 6.8 per cent year–on–year and up from 6.1 per cent growth in January.
The Middle East continued to lead all regions with year–on–year passenger demand growth of 18 per cent. African airlines saw an above average demand increase of 9.4 per cent boosted by the development of new routes within Africa and to Asia and the Middle East.
Stronger than expected economic growth drove demand growth in Europe (7.4 per cent), North America (6.8 per cent) and Asia (5.7 per cent).
Ian Jarrett
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