Changi Airport Group (CAG), operator of Singapore Changi Airport, will extend a 50 percent landing fee rebate from April to all scheduled freighter flights at the airport.
The Changi Airport Growth Initiative is being offered amidst the “continued tough operating environment faced by the cargo industry which has seen dampened demand for airfreight worldwide and persistently high fuel prices,” CAG said in a media release.
The rebate will be available from April 1 to December 31, 2013, and then reduced to 30 percent for the first quarter of 2014.
Also under the support package, cargo tenants leasing CAG cargo facilities at the Changi Airfreight Centre will be given rebates of up to 20 percent of their rentals based on tonnage handled. The rebate begins April 1 and runs for a year.
The incentives offered to both freighter airlines and cargo tenants will amount to more than S$17 million over the next 12 months, CAG said.
It noted that while passenger traffic at the airport has shown strong growth, cargo throughput declined 3.2 percent to 1.81 million tonnes last year. For the first two months of 2013, cargo tonnage handled at Changi Airport dropped 5 percent to 267,000 tonnes.
A sharp slowdown in world trade growth and shifts in commodity mix favoring sea transport have further decreased global air cargo demand, according to the International Air Transport Association. These factors caused airfreight markets to contract by 1.5 percent in 2012.
In Singapore, the economy grew by only 1.3 percent last year, largely due to weaknesses in the export-oriented sectors, such as manufacturing and wholesale and retail trade.
But CAG said it sees growth potential in specific cargo segments such as pharmaceuticals and perishables and will work with its industry partners to stimulate growth in these sectors, as well as in traffic to emerging economies like Africa and Southeast Asia.
“Our partners in the cargo sector continue to face strong headwinds from the global economic weakness. We hope, with this support package, to alleviate their situation,” said Lee Seow Hiang, CAG’s chief executive officer.
Photo courtesy of CAG
