Singapore Leads Gain In Air Flights
【By BETTINA WASSENER／聯合報／張佑生譯】
SINGAPORE — Travelers passing through the Changi International Airport here rarely have to wait long for bags or boarding. Unlike many other airports in this fast-growing region, Singapore’s airport can handle far more than the 53 million travelers that embarked and departed there last year.
And if they are delayed, the airport environment is relaxed ,with such amenities as a free movie theater, a butterfly garden and children’s play areas.
Despite all this, Singapore has plans to expand:By the middle of the next decade, the airport will have a third runway and two more terminals. The first new terminal, which is scheduled to open in 2017, will have a 300-meter- long shopping mall. A large bubble-shaped glass complex will be built between the existing terminals, providing extra space for travel facilities and still more shops, as well as gardens and a waterfall.
Singapore is unusually forward- looking in its approach to expanding what is a lifeline for the city-state’s economy. But the ambitious plans are just the most extreme example of the huge surge in airport construction across Asia. Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Jakarta and Delhi are adding or expanding terminals. Hong Kong is planning an additional runway. Beijing is building an entirely new airport. All are racing to stay ahead of demand that seems only to soar.
Altogether, about $115 billion has been committed to airport construction and development across the Asia-Pacific region, according to estimates from the Centre for Aviation, a research firm based in Sydney, Australia. That is about 45 percent more than either North America or Europe is spending.
Airpor t authorities are reacting to the region’s sharp rise in traffic in recent years.
Just seven years ago, airlines in the Asia- Pacific region flew 3,270 aircraft and carried 510 million people , according to the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. In 2012, 5,600 aircraft carried nearly 950 million passengers.
Beijing, whose airport 10 years ago was not even among the world’s top 30, now has the second- busiest airport in the world, after Atlanta’s.
The growth is unlikely to fizzle any time soon. The rising affluence among the region’s four billion inhabitants and economic growth rates that, despite a slowdown in the last year or two, remain well above those seen in the United States and Europe will keep airports busy.
The travel rush has generated congestion at many Asian airports, as airlines vie not just for passengers but also for landing slots, aircraft engineers, baggage handlers and check-in clerks.
Unlike in Europe, where 45 percent of the routes are served by just one or two airlines, threequarters of the routes in the region are served by at least three airlines, and more than a quarter are served by at least five, said Andrew Herdman, the director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines.
“You have a large population that is close to entering the middle class and that has an increasing propensity to fly,” said Angela Gittens of the Airports Council International, a trade group for airports. “It’s sheer arithmetic .”
中譯
取道新加坡樟宜國際機場很少需要長時間等行李或等登機。有別於此一快速成長地區的許多機場，樟宜能處理的旅客人數，遠在去年的吞吐量5300萬人次之上。
即使班機誤點，機場環境也輕鬆怡人，設施包括一間免費電影院、一座蝴蝶花園與兒童遊戲區。
儘管如此，新加坡仍已擬妥擴大方案。樟宜機場到2025年時會有第三條跑道與另兩個航站大廈。第一座新航廈預定2017年啟用，有300公尺長的購物街。現有的航廈之間將興建一棟泡沫狀大型玻璃建築區，為旅行設施提供更多空間，並有更多店面、花園及一道瀑布。
在規畫如何擴展此一城市國家經濟命脈的過程中，新加坡政府展現非凡的前瞻眼光。實則亞洲各國都在大舉擴建或增建機場，新加坡雄心萬丈的方案只是最極端的例子。吉隆坡、首爾、雅加達、德里正在增設或擴建航廈。香港在規畫另一條跑道，北京已在興建一座全新的機場。各地都亟欲走在似乎不斷增加的需求前面。
據澳洲雪梨研究機構航空中心統計，亞太各國總計已承諾投注1150億美元於機場興建及發展，約比北美或歐洲高出45%。機場當局以各種措施因應空中交通量大增的趨勢。
亞太航空公司協會指出，七年前亞太地區各航空公司營運客機還只有3270架，載客約5.1億人次。到2012年客機已增至5600架，載運人次則逼近9.5億。
直到10年前北京的機場還擠不進全球前30大，如今吞吐量已躍居全球第二，僅次於（美國）亞特蘭大的機場。
這種成長趨勢短期內不太可能中止。亞太地區40億人口收入不斷提高，經濟成長率雖然過去一兩年減緩，卻仍遠優於美國與歐洲。因此區內各國機場必然也得繼續忙碌下去。
這股空中旅遊熱已使許多亞洲機場出現壅塞現象，各航空公司爭取的不單是旅客，還包括班機降落的時段、飛機工程師、行李處理員與報到櫃檯的人力。
在歐洲，約45%的客機航線僅由一或兩家航空公司營運。亞太航空公司協會理事長赫德曼表示，亞太地區與此不同，約3/4的航線至少有三家航空公司飛行，逾1/4航線至少有五家公司飛行。
國際機場協會理事長安姬拉‧吉登斯說：「亞太地區有眾多人口即將躋身中產階級。他們搭機出遊的傾向越來越明顯。這是單純的算術。」
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