Singapore Changi Airport registered double-digit cargo growth in the first quarter of 2023, marking the first quarter of year-on-year growth after seven consecutive quarters of decline.

From January to March 2024, airfreight throughput totalled 475,000 tonnes, an increase of 14% compared to the same period last year.

"The growth was largely attributed to strong transhipment performance, especially for flows with China," the airport said in a statement.

For this period, it noted that Changi's top five air cargo markets were Australia, China, Hong Kong, India and the United States of America.

During the January-March period, Changi Airport welcomed two new freighter airlines: Shandong Airlines and Air Incheon.

They started four weekly Shenzhen-Singapore services on February 28 and twice-weekly Seoul-Haikou-Singapore services on March 5, respectively.

As of April 1, 95 airlines operate over 6,800 weekly scheduled flights at Changi Airport, connecting Singapore to 153 cities in 48 countries and territories worldwide.

For the first quarter, aircraft movements at Changi Airport totalled 89,400 (94% of the movements in Q1 2019), with traffic to and from most regions "recovered to 2019 levels, or surpassed them."

The gateway noted that North America has been the strongest performer, with traffic exceeding pre-Covid levels by 25% this quarter.

Meanwhile, the airport registered handled 5.43 million, 5.35 million and 5.73 million passenger movements in January, February and March 2024, respectively. These were 96%, 104.3% and 101.7% compared to the same month in 2019.

Changi Airport's top five markets for the quarter were China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and Thailand.

Lim Ching Kiat, executive vice president for air hub and cargo development at Changi Airport Group (CAG), said, "We are delighted to report that passenger movements in Q1 2024 have surpassed pre-COVID volumes. This follows a steady recovery of travel in the past year."

"CAG has worked closely with airline partners to reinstate flights suspended during the pandemic and add new flights at Changi Airport ... Our goal is to achieve 100% traffic recovery this year. We will also introduce new airline brands and destinations to Singapore," Kiat added.