Singapore airport traffic hits record, fuelled by casinos

"December 2011 was Changi Airport's busiest month ever with 4.53 million passenger movements," Changi Airport Group said in a statement last Friday.

A prime destination mainly for bankers and businessmen, Singapore has been drawing tourists with a slew of new attractions, the most popular being two casino-complexes built at a cost of more than us$ 10 billion.

The two casinos and their related attractions represent the new face of a city that wants to transform itself from regional trade and financial centre into a place for both work and play and emerge as Asia's Monte Carlo.

For the whole of 2011, Changi Airport handled 46.5 million passengers, up 10.7 percent from a year ago. Low-cost carriers accounted for one in four passengers last year, up from one in five in 2010. The tiny city-state, has near-zero crime and sparkling clean streets but also flogging, the death penalty, and a ban on chewing gum.

Changi Airport is one of Asia's largest air hubs, connecting Singapore to 210 cities in 60 countries. The airport serves more than 100 airlines and is a base for several carriers including Singapore Airlines, Tiger Airways and Qantas' JetStar Asia.