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Good evening to all, hope you had enjoyed the dinner. For me, I had a high quality dinner just now and this brings me to share with you about the recent endorsement on the Population White Paper by the Parliament. In Chapter 5 of the Population White Paper mentioned about “A High Quality Living Environment”. Being a developed country, Singapore nowadays are more concerned about the Quality of Life. Health Related Quality of Life (Horror) issues have also been addressed in this recently endorsed White Paper, this includes the addition of Health and Community Facilities to be build regressively in order support the expected 6. Million population. Would like to take this opportunity to share with you the key issues on how our aviation industry address the Health Related Quality of Life with regards to Noise generated around the airport vicinity and how it affect the nearby resident. Not forgetting how our Aviation industry is related to our Tourism industry. The Aviation industry in Singapore plays a part in the Health Related Quality of Life issues, especially in the increase of aircraft noise around the airport vicinity.
According to the facts and figures released by World Health Organization, there are a number of health effect causes by noise such as Sleep disturbance ; Cardiovascular effects; Damage to work and school performance; Hearing impairment; Since the residents around the airport are constantly subjected to the aircraft noise, therefore they could be experiencing these health effects. For the past 20 years in aviation industry, enormous effort and focus have been put in to reduce aircraft noise during the development of new aircraft.
Although new technologies have managed to reduce the noises generated from aircraft significantly, but still, there have been a number of complaints received every year on aircraft noise from the resident living around Singapore Changing Airport. This increasing in number noise compliant from the residents around the airport does not only occur in Singapore, other major airports around the world are also facing the same problem. As the increasing of noise complaints has becoming more prominent, Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore has since then recommended the Noise Abatement Procedure to address this concern.
Aircraft approaching the runway between 1 600 – 2200 hrs (LAST) is recommended to avoid exceeding del reverse thrust when using engine reverse upon landing on Runway ALL/ERR. It is important to address these complaints adequately since this may not be just an isolated issue within local aviation industry, but to certain extend, it could be indirectly linked to the local government obligations to the citizen, somehow related to what was committed by the Government in the white paper earlier on.
Complaints are commonly heard as citizen voices and may possibly cause instability within the country. Instability within a country will be costly especially when tourism is one of the key economic driver for a country like Singapore. Tourism Industry in Singapore contributed to the Singapore Gross Domestic Product exceeding 4 per cent in year 2011 amounting to 22. 3 billion in Tourism receipt So, how does Tourism in Singapore affect local Aviation industry? Singapore is a small country in size and it depends mainly on international tourists rather than domestic.
When tourists visit Singapore, they spent on goods and services, which will eventually translate to growth in retail and services industry. Growth of retails and service industry will in turn simulate the growth of other related markets and subsequently drive the unemployment dates down, the list goes on. Singapore being an island, air transport is one of the most popular choices between land, air and sea transport. Singapore Changing Airport handled approximately 51. 2 million of passenger in year 2012 with a daily average air transport movement of 889. 65 (324,722 annual).
This means that the aviation industry will be in a bad shape if the tourism industry hit a crisis. One good example is the CARS which struck Asia in year 2003. Due to the highly contagious nature of the disease, people do not travel unnecessarily and hence, Tourism industry was badly affected. The sudden fall in the number of rigorists visiting Singapore greatly affect the Airline operators. Airline operators were forced to cut down expense and reduce overheads in order to tide over the rough time. Fortunately, CARS was over pretty fast and we were back for business in no time.
Although Singapore Tourism industry performed outstandingly in year 201 2, there are a couple of challenges expected to face in year 2013. While Singapore have recently launched a couple of iconic tourist attractions such as the Resort World Santos, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore Flyers and Gardens by the Bay, our neighboring countries also have a growing list of heir own iconic attractions such as Legend and Hello Kitty Land in Malaysia, Casinos in South Korea and the Philippines. Tourists in the Asia region like China and Hong Kong may consider visiting our neighboring countries over Singapore.
This may reduce Singapore share of regional tourist spending and may in turn affect the growth of Singapore Tourism industry. While the Singapore Tourism Board is working their way to boost the tourism industry, Changing Airport Singapore also announces their 1. 3 billion plan to build the new Terminal 4 and surrounding infrastructures in order to cater for he increase in the passenger capacity and also the increasing number of low cost carrier. They are also looking at utilizing the 3rd runway for commercial purpose by the end of year 2020.
With these plans above, the Singapore tourism Industry outlook seems confident. However, let us look at the down side of this plan. The projection of the growth in the aviation industry looks well. The increase number of tourist visits to Singapore brings increase number of flights arriving, which also results to increase of noise and air pollution if it is not proper control or regulated. There will be more retailing, service and more residential establishment crowding around airport vicinity in order to support the airport operations.
I foresee the health of the residents and workers will be one of the most debatable issues come future. As you can see from above, it is always not an easy task to strike a balance between operational needs and social responsibility to the public. However, we must always remember to do our best to be responsible to everyone. Thankful and have a nice and enjoyable evening.