SINGAPORE: Singapore’s Changi Airport saw an increase in traffic for the fourth straight month in November, its operator said today, as air travel picks up after the global slump.

The airport handled 3.36 million international passengers in November, up 9.2 per cent from the same month last year and the highest monthly year-on-year growth for 2009, the Changi Airport Group said in a statement. Growth was strongest on Southeast Asian routes, the airport operator added.

The global economic crisis that struck late last year hammered travel demand worldwide, including in Singapore, a regional aviation hub. But the International Air Transport Association has said passenger traffic is rebounding in tandem with an improving global economy.

It warned however that airlines would still face substantial hurdles with lingering fallout from

the crisis and more pressure to cut costs.