SINGAPORE. Changi Airport Group (CAG) honoured its top airline partners this week at the 7th Changi Airline Awards held at the Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore.
The annual awards recognise the partnership of airlines operating at Changi Airport and their contributions towards making it a world-class air hub.
The event was attended by Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs, Lui Tuck Yew.
Awards were presented in five categories, namely top airlines by passenger and cargo carriage, fastest growing carriers for passengers and cargo, and the “˜Partner of the Year’ award.
The “˜Partner of the Year’ award was presented to the Jetstar Group, in recognition of “its strong partnership with CAG to grow and strengthen Changi Airport’s passenger throughput, connectivity and air hub status”, CAG said.
Besides strong year-on-year growth in its weekly flights out of Singapore, Jetstar launched Changi’s first long-haul low-cost service from Singapore to Melbourne in 2010, followed by services to Auckland and Beijing in 2011. These new services are said to strengthen Changi’s position as the preferred gateway to Australasia.
Milestones were also achieved when Jetstar established new direct links in China such as Shantou, Hangzhou and Ningbo, bridging Changi’s connectivity to key emerging secondary Chinese cities.
Leveraging Changi Airport’s strength as a major air hub, Jetstar grew the proportion of its transfer traffic to its total carriage at Changi from an initial 5% in 2009 to 14% of its total passenger movements by end-2011. This robust growth was the result of Jetstar’s active promotion of transfers within its network as well as interlining partnerships with major carriers such as Qantas, Air France-KLM and Jet Airways.
Since Jetstar Asia started operations at Changi Airport in 2004, it has grown from a fleet of four A320 aircraft to 16 A320s today, making Changi the Jetstar Group’s largest A320 base in Asia. Its city links from Changi has also grown from three in 2004 to the current 29 across 13 countries.
Jetstar Group Chief Executive Officer Bruce Buchanan said: “Jetstar is absolutely delighted to accept this award. Partners like CAG are critical to our success and our ability to offer our low fares across the region. Good airlines require good partners like CAG who understand the nature of our low cost model and how to work together to maximise opportunities to build growth.”
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Jetstar Asia Acting CEO Paul Daff (right) receiving the “˜Partner of the Year’ award on behalf of the Jetstar Group from Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs, Lui Tuck Yew (left) |
Top carriers at Changi
Jetstar was among the top five passenger carriers at Changi Airport in 2011. The others were Singapore Airlines, Tiger Airways, Silkair and Qantas Airways.
Awards were also presented to airlines from different regions which registered the strongest growth in passenger traffic at Changi. These were Tiger Airways (Singapore), AirAsia Berhad (Southeast Asia), Cathay Pacific Airways (Northeast Asia), Jet Airways (South Asia), Qantas Airways (Southwest Pacific), Qatar Airways (Middle East) and Turkish Airlines (Europe). Cathay Pacific was a repeat winner, while Tiger Airways posted the strongest growth in passengers carried (44%) among airlines serving more than one million passengers at Changi.
Partnering for growth
After registering 46.5 million passenger movements in 2011, Changi Airport has experienced steady passenger traffic growth in the first quarter of the year, with 12.3 million passengers passing through Changi. This represents a +12.9% increase in the three months over the corresponding period in 2011.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, Changi Airport Group CEO Lee Seow Hiang said: “For airlines, Asia is your region of growth and Singapore is at the heart of it. There are tremendous opportunities to tap the business potential of rising incomes and further market liberalisation. More passengers and an enhanced network at Changi translate into more interlining possibilities for airlines to feed and receive traffic. We will spare no effort in working with our airline partners to take advantage of the opportunities that exist in the region and beyond.”
He reiterated CAG’s commitment of additional support should the macro environment deteriorate significantly. “We are not in the position to negate the effects of high oil prices. But we have a solid record of standing by our partners to weather storms together. And we remain prepared to run the extra mile.
“Throughout the last decade, we have provided a range of support measures in difficult times, whether in the form of cost relief to airlines or marketing support to stimulate travel. Other incentives, under the Changi Airport Growth Initiative, remain and these will support airlines’ traffic growth at Changi Airport and the launch of services to new destinations.”
Changi Airport is the world’s seventh busiest airport for international passenger traffic. As at 1 April 2012, Changi served 100 airlines operating over 6,200 weekly scheduled flights to more than 220 cities in some 60 countries and territories.
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