Over 1.36 mln passengers pass through Budget Terminal in first year

To celebrate its first birthday, a grand prize of a $10,000 travel package to the Maldives is up for grabs

Over 1.36 million passengers have used it and weekly flights are up by 120 per cent - that is the birthday present for Singapore's Budget Terminal (BT), which turns one today.

In the first month of its operations, the average number of passengers handled per month was about 72,000. A year later, the figure has grown to more than 130,000, an 80 per cent increase.

Passenger movements peaked during the year-end holidays in December 2006 when 173,000 passengers used the terminal. To date, the terminal has welcomed both Singaporeans and foreigners, especially Chinese, Thai, Filipino and Vietnamese passengers.

The number of flights has also increased from 124 weekly flights when BT started operations, to 276 flights at the beginning of March this year. Tiger Airways operates 250 flights and Cebu Pacific does 26 flights.

Currently, Tiger Airways and Cebu Pacific Airways, two low cost carriers (LCC), are flying out to 18 cities in the Asia Pacific region from BT.

The number of city links has grown from 12 to 18 cities in seven countries, with Tiger Airways launching flights to Perth last week. The other new links are to Guangzhou, Haikou, Macau, Shenzhen and Udon Thani.

In addition, airport retail and food & beverage sales have increased by more than 80 per cent and 60 per cent respectively, compared to sales performance a year ago.

The growth of BT has contributed to the overall growth of LLCs in Singapore. As of March 1, LCCs in Singapore operate 566 weekly flights to 27 cities, which accounts for 14.6 per cent of total passenger flights at Changi Airport, compared to 10.5 per cent in April 2006.

Mr Wong Woon Liong, Director-General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), said: "The healthy progress made by the Budget Terminal today is testimony that the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore had made a right decision to build a customised terminal to meet the operational requirements of low cost carriers.

"We are delighted to witness the healthy passenger traffic growth at the Budget Terminal over the last twelve months."

To celebrate BT's first birthday, passengers and invited guests were invited to take part in a live shopping game, in which they stand to win the grand prize of a $10,000 travel package to the Maldives. They were also entertained by recently crowned Singapore's Project Superstars, Daren Tan and Lydia Tan.

There were also other birthday festivities organised by CAAS, including a six-week shopping promotion from Feb 5 to Mar 18, with discounts of up to 70 per cent and weekly lucky draws.
Source: Asia One News