Debated in Parliament on 27 Feb 2018.
Mr Leon Perera asked the Minister for Transport (a) what has been the number of international passengers for Changi Airport in 2017; and (b) what are the growth rates for international passengers for the past five years for Changi Airport compared to the same data for competing regional air hubs, including Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.
Mr Speaker, between 2012 and 2017, the number of passengers at Changi Airport grew at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 4%, reaching 62.2 million passengers in 2017. In the same period, the number of overseas visitors who came to Singapore by air grew at a CAGR of 4.1%.
The five-year CAGR for international passengers handled at the Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta airports were 10.2%, 7.4% and 3.5% for the period 2011 to 2016, based on publicly available full-year data. We do not have data on the number of overseas visitors the three foreign airports handled.
I thank the Minister for his comprehensive response. Given that the CAGR for Bangkok and Jakarta are quite substantially higher than Changi Airport, does the Ministry have any concerns that, over time, the competitiveness of our air hub will be eroded vis-à-vis Bangkok and Jakarta? What are some of the plans that the Ministry is looking into to mitigate that?
Indeed, the region's airports grow at different rates but, contextually, we must look at the growth conditions as well. Bangkok and Singapore Changi Airport are at about the same base but, in Bangkok, they have two different airports to serve the domestic and the international market at Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi Airports. With this advantage and also the domestic growth of LCCs, they have a 10.2% growth. We are watching this – as we always do – to make sure that Changi is competitive.
Whereas for Jakarta, it starts at a lower base, much lower numbers of passengers per year. When it starts off with different initial conditions, we have different growth rates. Nevertheless, what we want to do for Changi is to anchor it as a premier air hub, as we have done for so many years, which, also in time to come, will involve building a T5 for the expanded capacities to handle increased projected volumes of passengers.
PAPERCUTS