The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said Friday it was extending and expanding its Air Hub Development Fund (AHDF) to help airlines and airport service providers affected by the global economic downturn, dpa reported.
The AHDF, scheduled to expire December 31, 2008, would be extended by a year with an expanded budget of 130 million Singapore dollars (87.37 million US dollars) compared to the current 100 million dollars.
The CAAS said it would be introducing enhanced benefits, such as increasing the landing fee rebate by 10 per cent to 25 per cent under the extended fund for the benefit of the airlines using Singapore's Changi and Selatar airports.
It had also implemented air traffic management initiatives to help airlines reduce their operating costs.
The CAAS said it had worked with the International Civil Aviation Organization to implement a regional air traffic management system to regulate Europe-bound air traffic over the Bay of Bengal.
Changi airport passenger movements rose by 3.1 per cent year-on-year to 34.2 million in the January-November 2008 period.
But November passenger movements dropped by 3.2 per cent to 3.08 million due to the global economic crisis.
Air freight tonnage for November also fell by 14.2 per cent compared to November last year.
For the first 11 months of this year, it dipped by 0.2 per cent compared to the same period in 2007.