Singapore airport March passenger, cargo traffic up 19pct

Singapore’s Changi Airport, Asia’s fifth largest, saw an 18.8 percent rise in air freight movements by tonnage in March from a year ago, indicating strong demand for goods, data showed on Thursday.

The airport also recorded an 18.8 percent rise in the passenger movement in the same month, its third consecutive double digit growth in passenger traffic.

Changi Airport Group said it handled 3.45 million passenger movements last month, and 157,211 tonnes of airfreight movements.

The improvement comes after airline industry body IATA said on Wednesday that demand for both international air travel and air freight accelerated in March with the rebound on the back of economic recovery exceeding expectations.

However the recovery might be dented a bit by the closure of most part of European airspace in April due to the volcanic ash from the eruption in Iceland, which caused thousands of flights cancelled, affecting millions of people.

Singapore Airlines, the world’s second most valuable carrier by market value, said this month it filled 72.9 percent of the passenger and cargo space available on its planes in March, up from 62.6 percent a year ago and 71.4 percent in February.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20100429/tap-singapore-economy-airport-c3bb44c.html

 

Category: Singapore