Changi Airport Group (CAG) recently honoured its airline partners for strengthening and growing the Singapore air hub at the Changi Airline Awards 2024. Attended by more than 280 representatives from about 80 airlines and aviation partners, the 17th edition of the annual awards was headed by Chee Hong Tat, Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Finance.
In acknowledgement of the airlines who were instrumental in driving Changi Airport’s growth in passenger and air freight traffic in 2023, a total of 24 awards were presented across the following categories – Top Airlines by Passenger Carriage and Cargo Carriage, Top Airlines by Absolute Passenger Growth and Absolute Cargo Growth, Best Airline Marketing, and Partner of the Year.
Partner of the Year
The Partner of the Year award was presented to China Eastern Airlines, for its significant efforts in expanding Changi’s connectivity to China. In 2023, the airline launched four new links, including a new-to-Changi route from Beijing Daxing International Airport, making Changi Airport its first Southeast Asia point. The other new-to-airline direct links are Hefei, Nanjing and Hangzhou. With the increased services, China Eastern operated a total of 52 weekly services between Singapore and China as of December 2023.
To mark the launch of the new route to Beijing Daxing International Airport, China Eastern hosted a trade event, securing media coverage across prominent news outlets in both Singapore and China, as well as collaborated with CAG on a joint marketing campaign to stimulate travel demand, featuring exclusive deals for its passengers. The airline also proactively leveraged its social media platforms to showcase Singapore’s tourism offerings through engaging content.
Wu Qiwei, General Manager, Singapore Branch of China Eastern Airlines said, “Over the years, China Eastern Airlines has fostered a spirit of close collaboration with Changi Airport. Together, we have worked hard to achieve recovery of the aviation market between China and Singapore. With the deepening of economic and trade ties between our nations and increased personnel exchanges, Singapore remains a vital hub in China Eastern Airlines’ international network. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Changi Airport and our partners in Singapore for their steadfast support of China Eastern Airlines.”
Top carriers at Changi
The top five passenger carriers for 2023 were Singapore Airlines, Scoot, AirAsia Berhad, Jetstar Asia Airways and Qantas Airways. Singapore Airlines continued to top the list as the airline with the highest cargo volume, followed by FedEx Express, Scoot, Aerologic and China Airlines.
Automation key to future of aviation
Amid strong growth, with passenger traffic crossing 100% of pre-Covid-19 levels in the first quarter of 2024, Lee Seow Hiang, Chief Executive Officer of CAG, thanked all the airline partners for their invaluable contributions in the past year. Speaking at the awards event, Lee said that manpower shortage will be a major challenge for Changi Airport in the mid- to long-term, and that automation will be one key way to address it. “We have done deep automation in the last few years, and we are now on the cusp of a new phase with the launch of document-free travel by the end of this year. Using your biometrics as the key to identity verification, we reduce the need for passengers to repeatedly present travel documents at many touchpoints. The improvement will be transformational. By challenging the conventional norms in our business, we hope to take a step closer to our vision of an airport of the future,” Lee said.
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