Like many airports around the world, Singapore’s Changi Airport registered a strong rebound in both cargo and passenger volumes in the last quarter of 2009. December saw a 15.7 per cent rise in cargo throughput to 149,700 tonnes compared to a year earlier when the cargo industry was in the early stage of its sharp decline.

Cargo volumes for the full year 2009 were down 12 per cent to 1.63 tonnes compared to 2008 with month-by-month volumes seeing a steady improvement from January’s -24.5 per cent plummet to December’s gain.

Monthly passenger movements hit a record 3.83 million in December, representing a 9.7 per cent increase compared to December 2008. It was also nine per cent more than the previous record of 3.51 million set in December 2007. For the whole year, Changi saw 37.2 million passengers, down 1.3 per cent year-on-year.

Changi Airport said that while demand for air travel was impacted by weaker consumer confidence in most markets, traffic between Singapore and Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates grew.

Despite the impact of the global economic downturn, Changi handled more flights in 2009 – a total of 240,360, an increase of 3.6 per cent compared to 2008