Singapore reiterates support for SIA, Changi Airport through pandemic

The Singapore government has pledged to support SIA and the Changi Airport Group (CAG) “as much as we can” through a “deep crisis”, as it mulls a safe and steady reopening of its borders. Speaking at a parliamentary sitting on Tuesday, transport minister Ong Ye Kung also made reviving Singapore’s air hub status, now badly battered by a collapse in travel demand, a national priority and a “critical endeavour”. He notes that SIA and CAG are “facing a deep crisis” amid the coronavirus outbreak, which has brought global air travel to a grinding halt. Changi Airport, for instance, is only at 1.5% its usual passenger volume, with only about 6% of the usual passenger flights in operation. It has also shut two passenger terminals since May, amid plunging passenger numbers. Ong told parliament that Changi only has direct connections to 49 points globally, a significant drop from the pre-pandemic period, when it had links to 160 cities around the world. “We were the 7th busiest airport in the world for international passenger traffic. Today, we have dropped to 58th place,” Ong adds. As for SIA, Ong notes that without the carrier’s recapitalisation exercise, which it first announced in March, “there would not be an SIA today”.<br/>