Singapore Changi Airport maintained a double-digit cargo growth in the second quarter of the year, the second consecutive period of year-on-year growth for the hub after seven consecutive quarters of decline.

From April to June 2024, airfreight throughput totalled 486,000 tonnes, surpassing the same period last year by 16%.

This is also higher than the 475,000 tonnes handled by the airport in the first quarter of the year.

"Growth was registered across all cargo flows – exports, imports and transhipments, led by strong cargo flows between Singapore and China, as well as the United States of America," the airport said in a statement.

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

Lim Ching Kiat, executive vice president for Air Hub and Cargo Development at the Changi Airport Group, said the airport continues to expand its global network, having added more flights in the second quarter — including connectivity to cities such as Broome, Brussels, Quanzhou and Vancouver.

"Together with our airline partners, we are striving towards full travel recovery by the end of this year," he said, as the airport also handled 16.5 million passenger movements from April to June or 98.2% of passenger movements for the same period in 2019.

As of July 1, 94 airlines operate over 6,900 weekly scheduled flights at Changi Airport, connecting Singapore to 158 cities in 50 countries and territories worldwide.

For the second 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."