Changi Airport expresses optimism despite experiencing flat cargo year

CARGO officials at Singapore Changi Airport are generally optimistic despite cargo tonnage moving through facility being flat during the first nine months of the year at 1.37 million tonnes, a growth rate of just 0.3 per cent.

"We are generally pleased," said Changi's assistant vice president, cargo/logistics development, James Fong. "We have seen some markets that are lively compared to earlier this year. In August, we saw a good four per cent increase in volume."

Cold chain products such as pharmaceuticals and perishables, continue to be a strength for Changi, growing at a rate of five per cent over the past few years. "We are helped by Singapore being one of the world's largest pharmaceutical manufacturing centres," Mr Fong said.

Mr Fong said the airport's top priority is to continue to innovate and find new capabilities and new cargo segments to serve. He said the airport works closely with its two cargo handlers, SATS and dnata, to pinpoint the next wave of growth in order to target future investments.

"We plan to stay ahead of the game and find new trends," Mr Fong told Atlanta area Air Cargo World in an interview. "Overall, we are quite optimistic about cargo growth in the region."

Other cargo segments showing potential are live animals, express cargo and oil and gas. Singapore is one of the world's top oil and gas refining and trading hubs. It is a base for serving offshore oil and gas operations in the region.

New freighter services have been added during the past year, including Turkish Airlines beginning a weekly Singapore-Karachi-Istanbul service and ANA Cargo launching a six times weekly service serving Okinawa-Singapore-Narita.

Mr Fong is also optimistic that the planned ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asia Nations) Economic Community (AEC), due to be implemented in 2015, will have great benefits for air freight.

"It will be something like the EU, integrating economies in to a single market. We believe it will help boost air freight demand."