Changi Airport 2014 retail sales flat at S$2b

Retail sales were flat at Changi Airport for 2014, totalling around S$2 billion for the year.

This was about the same as a year ago. Two years ago, in 2012, the sales figure was S$1.8 billion.

Singaporeans accounted for 20 per cent of sales, unchanged from a year ago.

The number of tourists to Singapore was believed to have dropped in 2014, in part due to the plunge in the numbers of Chinese travellers after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

On Sunday, the Changi Airport Group also announced that 34-year-old Japanese civil engineer Seiichiro Oiyama is the latest winner of the fifth edition of its "Be a Changi Millionaire" contest, winning S$1 million in cash.

He was one of six finalists picked from a monthly lucky draw held between May and October 2014. The finalists then competed in a series of games based on luck in front of a live audience.

Mr Oiyama, who has a wife and four-year-old son, has been staying in Singapore with his family for one year. He had spent S$79 on some chocolates as a gift for a client last July, before flying to Hanoi for a business trip.

Other finalists won S$5,000 in cash, as well as a three-night stay at Crowne Plaza Changi Airport.

Changi Airport Group said it is running the contest again in 2015.