Pick-up in travellers to Thailand and China from Changi
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Two of Changi Airport's key markets - China and Thailand - recorded growth in passenger traffic last month, after almost a year of decline.
This gave a boost to overall traffic at Changi Airport which handled 4.49 million passengers, a 1.9 per cent jump compared with October last year.
After declining for 10 out of 12 months, passenger traffic to China jumped by 5 per cent last month compared with October a year ago.
This was most likely due to China's National Day Golden Week celebrations, which is a popular time of the year for residents to travel, industry observers said.
As for traffic to Thailand, which increased marginally by 1 per cent after 11 months of decline, this could be explained by the two long breaks last month - Eid Mubarak and Deepavali.
Many hotels in Thailand also lowered their rates by about 20 per cent for the low season, which ended about a week ago.
While the pick-up in China and Thailand is a positive sign, it is too early to say whether this marks the start of real recovery in the two key markets, industry analysts and travel agents said.
Dynasty Travel's spokesman, Alicia Seah, said: "Despite last month's surge, we expect November and December to remain challenging."
Overall, travel sentiments are still affected by political instability in Thailand, the impact of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in March, and new travel laws in China.
Imposed about a year ago, China's new tourism laws, which prohibit travel agencies from offering below-cost packages that usually come with compulsory shopping stops, have reduced the number of outbound travellers.
Despite the challenges, one bright spot is demand to and from South Asia which grew strongly last month, Changi Airport Group said.
Singapore-India passenger traffic, for example, grew by 17 per cent year-on-year last month.
Between January and last month, the airport handled 44.58 million passenger movements, 1 per cent more than the corresponding period last year.
Cargo shipments grew by 0.5 per cent to 1.53 million tonnes, while aircraft movements were stable at 283,650 landings and take-offs during the same period.
With the year almost coming to an end, aviation analysts expect Changi to record higher passenger numbers this year compared with last year's 53.7 million passengers, but the growth will be one of the smallest increases in the last decade.
