Commentary: Targeted travel restrictions needed but careful not to undermine Changi Airport's connectivity
SINGAPORE: The recent moving ridge of infections in Singapore, which included a COVID-nineteen cluster at Changi Airport concluding month, has prompted some calls for the suspension of rider travel at the airport altogether.
While many have called for an before tightening of restrictions of travel from certain places with surges in infections, which are reasonable, worryingly, there are some who have commented that Changi should also have been closed to entering travelers to protect Singapore from bringing in COVID-19 cases into the state.
"Can't they just close the border for 14 days?" asked one. "How about a consummate ban" asked another.
While such calls are few and far between, they are alarming, do not understand the gravity of shutting off travel and should be addressed.
READ: Commentary: Costs of US travel bans come up into sharper focus - for separated families, jobs and more than
Even if a intermission for 14 days eliminates imported cases completely, the risk remains after Changi reopens. Without a clear cease in sight for this pandemic, staying shut until COVID-19 is brought to heel is not a viable option.
CRIPPLING CHANGI'South RECOVERY
Currently, due to COVID-19 restrictions on global travel, Changi merely recorded 11.8 one thousand thousand passengers in 2020, a 82.8 per cent decrease compared to the 68.3 1000000 in 2019.
Fifty-fifty though total passenger movement totalled 173,000 in April 2021, which is much higher than the depression base of operations of 25,200 a year agone when Singapore had a circuit breaker, Changi'south numbers accept slowed to a trickle, at less than 5 per cent of pre-COVID traffic.
These accept not factored in new travel restrictions imposed after a new moving ridge of infections striking Singapore.
Airlines and airport leaders have already started adjusting to this reality of a plummet in air travel. The reduction in air travel has prompted major policy shifts such equally the shelving of development for Terminal 5 for at to the lowest degree two years as air travel trends are analysed.
Singapore Airlines has also undertaken a major restructuring exercise.
Contest IS RIFE
Even though international travel has been muted during COVID-nineteen, Changi Airdrome's competitors have fared better, sustained by domestic traffic which make upwardly near 90 per cent of air travel in a pandemic twelvemonth.
For 2020, the 11.8 one thousand thousand passengers that came through Changi were far fewer than the 43 million and 72.6 meg respectively at Malaysian and Thai airports.
While Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports saw a 53 per cent dip in passengers over FY2020, they had a respectable 648,000 people coming through in September 2020, according to the Airports of Thailand. Out of these, 588,00 were domestic travel passengers.
Airports of Thailand also predicts that information technology should hit near 80 per cent of 2022 passenger volume by the side by side financial year.
These regional airports have already given Changi a run for its money in alluring budget travellers pre-coronavirus, with Don Mueang'south emergence as the earth's largest low-cost air hub with multiple low-price carriers (LCC) plying routes since 2022 and Malaysia building a low-price carrier terminal at the Kuala Lumpur International Airdrome (KLIA) in 2014.
READ: Commentary: Why Singapore's travel restrictions will continue changing for a while more
READ: Commentary: Airlines accept fiddling choice only to not be airlines for a few years
Further afield, the Gulf states with their airports in Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai are likewise gaining footing. Pre-coronavirus, airline seat count doubled in the Middle East between 2009 to 2022 to 264.iii million scheduled passengers departing from the region.
As at terminate-2020, Dubai welcomed 25.9 1000000 people through its terminals, a third of the 86.4 million that passed in 2019.
"The Middle East sits in a unique position in dealing with the consequences of the pandemic and the airline losses from it", Oliver Wyman Transportation and Services partner Michael Wette was quoted in an industry report as maxim. "Mostly state-endemic operators are somewhat protected from the short-term financial hit, given that the government will likely provide fiscal support."
With sufficient oil and natural resource to cushion the accident, the Airports Council International forecasted on Feb i that over the next 20 years, total passenger traffic will grow at 5.2 per cent in the Middle E compared to 4.7 per cent in the Asia Pacific, with Saudi arabia and United Arab Emirates leading the manner.
THE IMPACT OF SCALING BACK ON AIR TRAVEL
With the aviation sector contributing 3 per cent to Singapore's GDP and as many as 119,000 jobs, scaling dorsum on passenger air travel is a risk the country tin ill afford.
Travel bans to certain countries based on medical advice might have been necessary just has larger implications across the firsthand drib in travel.
It is Changi'due south splendid connectivity - based on its more than 400 flight destinations, flying frequency of an airplane arriving or parting from Changi every lxxx seconds and the availability of more than 100 airlines that Changi serves – that makes Singapore a key aviation hub.
Maintaining long-haul connections with Europe and North America during the pandemic is necessary to sustain Changi'due south air hub part in the region. Airlines that find new routes to bypass Changi for transit may detect these alternatives eventually more attractive and may not return.
READ: Commentary: SIA's resumption of daily non-stop flights to key The states cities - how necessary are they?
A long-term suspension of rider travel at Changi, the de facto domicile of SIA, will inevitably harm the airline'south recovery and the fortunes of its more than than 28,000 employees beyond the group. In addition, it volition also hurt Singapore's S$vi.eight billion logistics sector, which hires more 86,000 employees.
In the 2022 to 2022 period, Changi served 24 cargo airlines operating over 320 weekly scheduled freighter flights, linking Singapore to 48 cities. Passenger flights as well carried freight in their nether bellies.
Air connectivity is likewise critical to Singapore's growth sectors like the pharmaceutical industry and east-commerce where portals here provide over 20,000 items from more than than 800 brands.
KEEP CALM AND INCREASE PRESENCE
The cases of COVID–xix infections in Singapore and our key trading partners may continue to oscillate.
That is why instead of halting passenger flows, Changi has taken steps to amend public health safety through segregating workers into risk-based zones and passengers from places of different adventure profiles among other measures.
Instead of knee-jerk reactions, the CAG must maintain visibility in key markets such every bit Communist china and Indonesia through publicity and promotions so that it is well-placed to take advantage of the recovery in one case travel restrictions ease and vaccination rates get upwards.
For example, Changi has collaborated with Chinese mobile payment partners Alipay, WeChat Pay and UnionPay to launch quarterly shopping promotions targeting Chinese passengers.
READ: Commentary: The aviation sector should bounce back sooner than expected
Every bit a key air hub in the region and within a fundamental growth area for air traffic, Changi's air connectivity should never be undermined because the loss of market share might not be regained.
No doubt steps must be taken to protect public safety. This is where responsive travel restrictions on high-chance destinations is needed when cases in other parts of the world spike.
But closure to passenger travel should not be an immediate option.
Dr Faizal Yahya is a Senior Research Swain at the Found of Policy Studies, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National Academy of Singapore.
spencersionceend1960.blogspot.com
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/commentary-targeted-travel-restrictions-needed-careful-not-undermine-changi-airports-connectivity-283036
0 Response to "Commentary: Targeted travel restrictions needed but careful not to undermine Changi Airport's connectivity"
Postar um comentário