Changi Airport shops busier as travellers return; retail sales hit $1.1b in 2022

More than nine in 10 stores at Changi Airport’s four terminals are now open for business as the airport gears up for more passengers to pass through and shop at its premises. According to figures released by Changi Airport Group (CAG) on Sunday, the airport recorded a total of $1.1b in concession sales in 2022, which is about 37% of the total recorded in 2019. In December 2022 – Changi Airport’s busiest month since the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020 – retail sales at the four terminals hit about 58 per cent of 2019 levels. This was on the back of passenger traffic at the airport recovering to about 72 per cent of 2019 levels that month, CAG said. Over the past three years, sales at the airport’s terminals were hit hard by the pandemic as the number of travellers dwindled. Operations at Terminal 4 were suspended for more than two years due to the low traffic, while Terminal 2 was closed for upgrading works that were brought forward amid the lull. With the relaxation of Singapore’s Covid-19 border measures in 2022, business has picked up at stores in the airport’s transit and public areas, as well as on its iShopChangi online platform.<br/>