NEWS & EVENTS ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

COVID-19 in Singapore: Traveller volume decreased; cargo volume increased

Singapore, 10 February 2021 – The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), in its annual statistics report published on 8 February 2021, claimed that in 2020, it cleared over 42 million travellers and 11.7 million consignments, containers and parcels.

This is about 175 million fewer travellers and 400,000 more cargoes compared to 2019. ICA also cleared over 21 million low-value goods through the air cargo checkpoints in 2020, which is double the 10.5 million cleared in 2019.

Traveller volume declined significantly in 2020 as demand for air travel came to a near halt, with many countries imposing much stricter border control measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, the circuit breaker measures and travel restrictions have provided impetus for consumers to turn towards e-commerce and online shopping for their daily essentials, leisure and entertainment needs. This led to the surge in low-value goods volume.

Travellers  

 

Dropping 80.6%

2019 2020
Number of travellers cleared 217,398,000 42,190,000
Cargoes  

 

 

 

Rising  3.6%

Containers 1,018,000 1,167,000
Consignments 3,840,000 4,462,000
Parcels 6,493,000 6,131,000
Total cargoes cleared 11,351,000 11,760,000

– Construction+ Online

Source: Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA)