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Singapore Changi Airport (IATA: SIN, ICAO: WSSS) (Malay: Lapangan Terbang Changi Singapura; pinyin: Xinjiapo
Zhangyí Jichang) or simply Changi Airport, is a major aviation hub in Asia. It is located in Changi, about 20 km (12 miles)
east northeast of the centre of Singapore.
Singapore Airport is the home base of Singapore Airlines, Singapore Airlines Cargo, SilkAir, Tiger Airways, Jetstar Asia
Airways, Valuair, and Jett8 Airlines Cargo. It is a major hub for Garuda Indonesia and Qantas. As of June 2007, there were
about 4,186 weekly flights operated by 81 airlines to over 185 cities in 58 countries. An important contributor to the
Singapore economy, 13,000 people are employed at the airport. The airport accounts for over S$4.5 billion in output.
In 2006, the airport handled a record 35 million passengers, an 8% increase over the 2005 fiscal year. This made it
the 22nd busiest airport in the world and the sixth busiest in Asia by passenger traffic. In addition to being an important
passenger traffic hub, the airport is one of the busiest cargo airports in the world, handling 1,911,000 tonnes of cargo
in 2006. Incentives like the Air Hub Development Fund, first introduced in 2003, have proven effective in attracting airlines
here.
The new S$1.75 billion Terminal 3 opened on 9 January 2008 and Terminal 1 will be upgraded along the lines of
the renovated Terminal 2, with the latter costing S$240 million. Changi has been courting both premium and budget travellers
with the opening of a commercially important persons terminal by JetQuay and a S$45 million Budget Terminal in 2006.
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