SINGAPORE - Twenty-five awards were given out on Thursday (April 27) evening to airlines which contributed to the growth and development of the Singapore air hub over the past year, as part of the 12th annual Changi Airline Awards.
The ceremony, which was organised by Changi Airport Group, was held at the St. Regis Singapore and attended by Second Minister for Transport Ng Chee Meng.
The top five airlines and airline groups, based on passengers last year (2016), were Singapore Airlines Group, followed by Jetstar Group, AirAsia Group, Cathay Pacific Airways and Lion Group.
Singapore Airlines Group also topped the list for the highest cargo volume, followed by Cathay Pacific Airways, FedEx Express, China Airlines and EVA Air.
The partner of the year award was given to delivery firm DHL Express, which in October launched its fully automated South Asia Hub at the Changi Airfreight Centre.
The new facility tripled DHL's cargo handling capacity to 628 tonnes during the peak processing window, and increased its parcel-sorting speed to 24,000 shipments and documents per hour - a six-fold improvement.
DHL Express Asia Pacific network operations and aviation executive vice-president Sean Wall said Singapore was a strategic node in the firm's global network.
"As the heart of our DHL network in South and South-east Asia, the South Asia Hub in Singapore has allowed us to add more network flights in and out of the country to meet our customers' needs, and to further capitalise on the country's prime position for regional and global trade," said Mr Wall.
The firm's joint venture and partner freighter flights at Changi Airport currently make up about 12 per cent of Changi's total weekly freighter services, or more then 30 weekly services.
CAG chief executive Lee Seow Hiang said that Changi Airport will "continue to transform" to meet future challenges.
"We will do so by catering supply for future growth, as well as working with our partners to grow sustainable demand for aviation services," he said.
Mr Lee mentioned the Airport Collaborative Decision Making (ACDM) initiative as an example of Changi Airport adding capacity to the existing airport eco-system.
He said that as a result of ACDM, there has been a reduction of 90 seconds in the average taxiing time for departing flights during peak hours which has translated into fuel savings for airlines.
Mr Lee added that CAG is pursuing avenues for "sustainable growth" with its partners in the long term, such as growing new passenger segments for airlines.
"These include meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions, fly-cruise out of Singapore and low-cost long-haul travel such as forthcoming services by Scoot and Norwegian to Athens and London respectively, " he said.
Last year (2016) Changi Airport handled a record 58.7 million passengers, a growth of 5.9 per cent year-on-year.
The airport, which also added four new airline partners and eight new city links last year (2016), is expected to receive 60 million passengers this year (2017).
