SINGAPORE – Singapore’s Changi Airport handled record passenger traffic of 36.7 million in 2007, up 4.8 percent from the previous year.
The traditional peak travel month of December 2007 also set a record for the highest monthly traffic at Changi Airport.
More than 3.5 million passengers went through the airport, a three percent increase compared to 3.42 million passengers handled in the previous year.
The third record set is the number of passengers processed in a day: 125,000 passengers passed through Changi Airport on December 15, 2007, surpassing the previous record of 121,680 passengers handled on December 16, 2006.
Last year’s passenger traffic broke the previous record of 35.03 million set in 2006 and was driven by strong growth in China and India, the airport operator, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), said.
Emerging markets like Vietnam, Russia and South Africa also contributed to last year’s record showing.
Changi Airport recently opened its third terminal which cost S$1.75 billion (US$1.23 billion) and can handle 22 million passengers a year, raising its total capacity to about 70 million annually.
CAAS director-general and CEO, Lim Kim Choon, said, “We got off to a good start in 2008, with the opening of Terminal 3. Changi Airport is in good stead to tap on the strong demand for air travel.”
