SINGAPORE. Here’s the kind of sight that the aviation and travel retail communities are eager to see more of, as a positive nod towards travel industry recovery and the return of meaningful traffic to the skies.
Changi Airport Group and ONE Changi leaders stood in unity with airport staff as they received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Singapore Changi’s Vaccination Centre in Terminal 4 this week.
The centre can currently vaccinate 2,000 persons each day, and over time it will scale up to offer COVID jabs in greater daily numbers. In a post on LinkedIn, Changi Airport Group noted that it has a pivotal role in ensuring that Singapore’s air borders continue to remain open. It said many thousands of workers in the aviation sector will be vaccinated in the coming weeks.
They include about 20,000 front line workers such as pilots, cabin crew, airport and aircraft cleaners, security screeners, passenger service agents, and baggage and cargo handlers, who come into contact with travellers from all over the world.
Changi Airport Group also noted that the vaccinations will complement other existing safety and hygiene measures to protect the health of aviation workers.
This is indeed a shot in the arm for one of the Asia Pacific region’s – and the world’s – most cosmopolitan and influential travel hubs, which has been so quiet recently as the Singapore government continues to impose ultra-tough movement restrictions to contain the pandemic.
In health terms, that approach appears to be working, with Singapore reporting so few new COVID-19 cases recently. The economic cost to the airport and the whole country however, as we recently highlighted, is unmeasurable, so positive signs such as the vaccination programme for airport staff comes as an enormous boost.
It may not be time to bring out the bunting but it brings hope that better times – and a revival of activity at one of the world’s greatest airports for travel retail activity – are moving closer.
