Singapore's Budget Terminal Turns One
Singapore's Budget Terminal (BT) celebrates its first birthday today. In just one year, the BT has seen remarkable growth, with more than 1.36 million passengers passing through the terminal and close to 120 per cent increase in weekly flights. Served by two low cost carriers (LCCs), Tiger Airways and Cebu Pacific Airways, the BT is today linked to 18 cities in the Asia Pacific region.
As part of an event to celebrate the BT's first birthday, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) organised a live shopping game for five passengers, winners of a recent shopping promotion at the BT, to vie for the grand prize of a S$10,000 travel package.
In the first month of BT's operations last year, the average number of passengers handled per month was about 72,000. Today, the figure has grown to more than 130,000, representing an increase of about 80 per cent. With higher travel demand during the year-end holidays, passenger movements peaked in December 2006 when 173,000 passengers used the terminal. As at 25 March 2007, the BT has received more than 1.36 million passengers with a fair mix of Singaporeans and foreigners, especially Chinese, Thai, Filipino and Vietnamese passengers.
The frequency of flights has also increased from 124 weekly flights (when the BT commenced operations) to 276 (as at 1 March 2007), of which 250 flights are operated by Tiger Airways and 26 flights by Cebu Pacific. The number of city links has also increased by 50 per cent, from 12 to 18 cities in seven countries, with Tiger Airways launching flights to the popular Australian destination of Perth just three days ago. The other new links are to Guangzhou, Haikou, Macau, Shenzhen and Udon Thani. Some other popular travel destinations among passengers at the BT include Bangkok, Clark Field, Ho Chi Minh City and Phuket.
The strong performance of the Budget Terminal shows that the terminal has provided good support for the healthy growth of LCCs at Changi Airport. As at 1 March 2007, LCCs in Singapore operate 566 weekly flights to 27 cities, which accounts for 14.6 per cent of total passenger flights at Changi Airport compared to 10.5 per cent in April 2006.
Mr Wong Woon Liong, CAAS Director-General said, "The healthy progress made by the Budget Terminal today is testimony that the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore had made a right decision to build a customised terminal to meet the operational requirements of low cost carriers. We are delighted to witness the healthy passenger traffic growth at the Budget Terminal over the last twelve months. Airport shop sales have also seen good growth, in tandem with our growth in passenger volume and supported by the various interesting and unique shopping deals organised by CAAS. Retail and food & beverage sales have increased by more than 80 per cent and 60 per cent respectively, compared to sales performance a year ago. CAAS will continue to work closely with our airline partners and airport retailers to sustain this healthy and encouraging performance."
To add fun and vibrancy in celebrating the BT's first birthday, passengers and invited guests were entertained with a live shopping game as well as song performances by recently crowned Singapore's Project Superstars, Daren Tan and Lydia Tan. For the shopping game, five passengers (winners of a six-week shopping promotion held in conjunction with the BT's first anniversary), were invited to compete in a shopping game called 'Amazing Shopping Challenge' for the grand prize of a $10,000 travel package to the Maldives. With a virtual budget of $326 (marking the BT's birth date, March 26), each contestant had to shop for 10 out of 60 products retailed at the BT. The contestant whose total amount in his or her shopping basket is closest to the virtual budget wins the grand prize.
CAAS had also organised interesting activities in conjunction with the BT's first anniversary. A week before the birthday, passengers and members of the public participated in a giant three-dimensional board game called "Flight of Fantasy" (similar to the well-known 'snake and ladder' board game) at the BT Departure Hall for a chance to win air tickets. The "Flight of Fantasy" board game holds the record of 'Biggest Travel Board Game in Singapore' conferred by the Singapore Book of Records. A children playground was also put up for the little ones to enjoy, with free popcorn and candy floss giveaways. A six-week shopping promotion 'Strike it Big' was held from 5 February to 18 March 2007. Besides attractive discounts of up to 70 per cent, a weekly lucky draw allowed passengers who made purchases at any of the 13 retail and 5 food & beverage outlets to stand to win up to 10 times of what they spent and 20 times if they had made payments by VISA.
Date posted: 26-Mar-07
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Singapore's Budget Terminal Turns One 
