Changi Airport: Ranked 9th Busiest Worldwide for International Passengers in 2022

SINGAPORE, April 9 (The Straits Times/ANN): Due to a significant increase in demand for air travel, Changi Airport will once again rank among the top 10 busiest airports in the world in terms of international passenger traffic in 2022.

According to the ranking by Airports Council International (ACI) World, which was issued last Wednesday, the airport was the ninth busiest in the world with a total of 31.9 million passengers passing through.

With 66 million international passenger movements, Dubai International Airport maintained its lead. London Heathrow Airport came in second with 58.2 million travelers, and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol came in third with 52.5 million.

Changi Airport handled a record 68.3 million passenger movements in 2019 and was the seventh busiest airport in the world in terms of foreign passenger volume prior to the Covid-19 epidemic.

The airport fell to 95th place in 2021 as a result of closed borders and a decline in air travel demand brought on by the pandemic.

According to early data from ACI Global, with the revival of international travel, there will be close to seven billion passengers worldwide in 2022.

It marks a significant turning point in the recovery of air travel from the pandemic, with a gain of 53.5% from 2021 or a recovery of 73.8% from 2019 statistics.

According to data from the International Air Transport Association (Iata) released last Tuesday, international traffic is gradually returning to pre-pandemic levels, with volumes increasing 89.7% in February 2023 compared to February 2022.

According to Iata, carriers in the Asia-Pacific region lead all markets in terms of significant growth in February.

In terms of revenue passenger kilometers, international traffic increased by 77.5% from February 2019 levels.

Despite the unstable economic environment, according to Iata director-general Willie Walsh, demand for air travel remains high across the globe and in particular in the Asia-Pacific.

According to him, “the industry is currently roughly 15% below 2019 levels of demand, and that gap is getting smaller every month.”

“More and more people are taking to the skies. We anticipate a significant increase in air travel for the Easter and Passover holidays in many regions of the world. They ought to proceed in confidence, knowing that airlines have been restoring their resilience after it was damaged by the epidemic, said Mr. Walsh. (The Straits Times/ANN)