Now that China has fully reopened and tour groups and independent travelers can travel in both directions, airlines and airports are looking for the region's most effective products and services. Singapore's Changi Airport Group has worked with partners to develop a system that allows its Changi Pay digital wallet to be accepted on China's Alipay+ network.
Simple transactions with Changi Pay
This week, the Changi Airport Group (CAG), operators of Singapore Changi Airport, said that Singapore residents visiting China can use the Changi Pay digital wallet to scan and pay for purchases. Changi Pay users can pay securely at merchants on the Alipay+ network in China, where mobile payments via QR cards are much more popular than with traditional bank cards or cash.
Changi Pay users will avoid transaction fees that often come with overseas credit cards and receive more favorable exchange rates while transacting in China. As an incentive to spend more, those who use Changi Pay while in China will also receive e-vouchers, which can be redeemed when shopping at Changi Airport. CAG executive vice president for Commercial Ms Lim Peck Hoon said:
The collaboration is between Changi Airport Group, Liquid Group and Ant Group, where CAG's digital wallet incorporates Liquid Group-issued Liquid accounts and joins the Alipay+ ecosystem. This enables Changi Pay users to make payments at tens of millions of merchants across China and builds on the CAG-Liquid Group partnership that launched Changi Pay in 2021.
Ant Group is the operator of Alipay+, which enables digital payment acceptance of e-wallets, bank apps and buy-now-pay-later apps at merchants globally that are part of the Alipay+ system. Apart from China, Alipay+ is also welcomed in Singapore, Macao, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, South Korea and others, and the Ant group is also the operator of Alipay for Chinese mainland users and the Alipay merchant network for China.
How is Changi Airport performing?
In the second quarter of this year (April to June), Changi Airport handled 14.6 million passenger movements, 87% of what it recorded in the second quarter of 2019. In 2Q, aircraft movements reached 81,400 or 86% of 2Q 2019, and the top five passenger markets were Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
In the second quarter, China's reopening began to take effect, with passenger traffic to and from Northeast Asia showing steady improvement, rising from around 50% of pre-pandemic levels in January to 75% by June. With 5.12 million passengers passing through Changi Airport in June, the first time it had passed the 5 million milestone since January 2020, the airport was at 88% of what it handled in June 2019.
At the start of July 2023, 99 airlines operated more than 6,300 weekly scheduled flights at Changi Airport, connecting Singapore to 148 cities in 49 countries and territories globally. While most of those airlines were familiar faces returning post-COVID, an interesting one was the announcement that Air Canada will resume its Vancouver-Sinagpre service in April 2024, after more than three decades since the airline last operated at Changi.
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