UPGRADING OF BUDGET TERMINAL

Parliament of Singapore · 27 August 2008

Official Report, 27 August 2008, Vol 84, Issue 19 · Open in the reader (summaries, search, filters)

Halimah YacobLim Hwee Hua

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UPGRADING OF BUDGET TERMINAL: 19.

Mdm Halimah Yacob (Jurong) asked the Minister for Transport (a) why there is a need to upgrade the Budget Terminal so soon after it was opened; and (b) whether this indicates poor planning on the part of CAAS for failing to anticipate a higher passenger traffic at the Terminal.

Mrs Lim Hwee Hua (for the Minister for Transport): Sir, the Budget Terminal at Changi was opened in March 2006 with an annual handling capacity of 2.7 million passengers. After over two years of operation, the utilisation rate today has exceeded 65% of its current capacity. The current expansion will see Budget Terminal's capacity increase to 7 million passengers per annum by the second quarter of 2009.

Sir, when the decision was taken to build the Budget Terminal in 2004, budget air travel was still a relatively new phenomenon in Asia and no one could be certain of its success in the region. Nevertheless, we decided to invest and build a dedicated facility ahead of many other countries in Asia to cater to an emerging demand. The Budget Terminal was therefore planned to be developed in a phased-like fashion with the scope to scale up its capacity to meet higher passenger traffic as and when necessary.

After more than two years of operation, passenger traffic has grown by more than 30% since 2006 and this growth accounted for about 25% of

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Changi Airport's total passenger growth over the same period. Moving forward, air travel in Southeast Asia is expected to grow as liberalisation of air services among ASEAN capitals will materialise by the end of this year. Low cost carriers would then have even more opportunities to expand their network and operations. The expansion of the Budget Terminal is therefore timely and would continue to facilitate the growth of budget air travel in Singapore.

3.00 pm

Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question time.

[ Pursuant to Standing Order No. 22(3), Question Nos. 20 and 21 have been postponed to the next available sitting of Parliament. ]

Source: Singapore Parliament Official Report (Hansard) for 27 August 2008. Republished on SGParliament.