Travel planning 2024: New airlines and destinations from Changi Airport

As airlines reclaim the skies, Changi Airport – consistently lauded as one of the best globally by travel players – surged past 90% of pre-pandemic traffic in October 2023. Lim Ching Kiat, executive vice-president of air hub and cargo development at Changi Airport Group (CAG), says the airport is working closely with airline partners to enhance its connectivity to the rest of South-east Asia and anchor itself as a premier hub in the region. “Given that the aviation industry’s centre of gravity is shifting towards Asia-Pacific, due to its rising middle-class population and strong gross domestic product growth, Changi Airport is well positioned to capture this growth as a major international air hub located in the heart of South-east Asia,” he says. The larger Asia-Pacific region is poised to become the fastest-growing zone for air travel over the next two decades, according to a December 2022 report by the IATA. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Changi Airport has welcomed four new airlines from South-east Asia – Cambodia Airways, Indonesia’s Citilink, Malaysia’s Firefly and Bangkok-based Thai Vietjet Air. It has also added a new city link, Sibu in Malaysia, operated by AirAsia. In addition, new South-east Asian carriers are set to operate from Changi in the next few months, including Aero Dili from Timor Leste.<br/>