As demand returns, how Singapore’s Changi Airport managed to avoid Europe-like travel chaos
- The airport held regular meetings with airlines and key suppliers like baggage handling to ensure flight increases were accommodated without affecting operations
- The aviation hub has forecast the number of flights will reach 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2022
The airport reached 56 per cent of its 2019 passenger numbers in August and the government has forecast the number of flights will reach 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year.
Jayson Goh, Changi Airport Group’s managing director of airport operations, said it was holding regular meetings with airlines and key suppliers like baggage handling, cleaning and catering companies to ensure that flight increases could be accommodated without affecting service levels.
That has sometimes resulted in measures like changing flight times rather than stopping plans to add services, he said in an interview on Wednesday.
“You can say OK, this hour is really a peak. Can I still fly but I fly two hours earlier or two hours later so that you don’t try to clash with a peak?”