Singapore’s Changi Airport will once again be able to accept transit passengers, as the city-state prepares to ease the “Circuit Breaker” and gradually start to resume activity in the city on June 2, 2020. Singapore’s ban on transit passengers was put in effect on March 24, 2020.
In an announcement made by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore earlier on, they mentioned
Singapore will gradually allow travelers to transit through Changi Airport with effect from 2 June 2020. This is part of Singapore’s strategy to gradually re-open air transport to meet the needs of our economy and our people, whilst ensuring sufficient safeguards for safe travel.
Changi Airport is amongst the busiest airports in Asia, with 68.3 million passengers using the airport in 2019. The CoVid-19 related restrictions have impacted the airport, which consolidated operations at Terminal 2, and then at Terminal 4. For comparison, in April 2019, 5.58 million passengers used the airport, but in April 2020, only 25000 passengers used the terminal, causing a 99.5% drop in traffic numbers year on year.
For the time being, CAAS said that foreign passengers may only transit through Singapore if they are on repatriation flights arranged by their governments. The decision will allow passengers to transit through Singapore more easily.
Not just that, as a precaution, stringent measures will be instituted to ensure that the transit passengers remain in designated facilities in the transit area and do not mix with other passengers while at Changi Airport. Airport staff will be required to wear personal protective equipment when interacting with passengers. Existing precautionary measures, such as safe distancing, temperature taking for passengers and crew, will continue to be enforced.
The opening up of Singapore transit for passengers, should be good news for Singapore Airlines, the home carrier, which is at the receiving end of this closure of passenger traffic at the airport since March 2020.
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