Singapore Changi Airport underscored its position as a regional aviation hub by announcing that it handled more than 50 million passengers in 2012.

Changi Airport spokesman announced on Thursday that the airport handled 51.2 million passengers in 2012, thanks to strong traffic from all key regions and rising transit flows.

The woes of Boeing Co.'s Dreamliner 787 aircrafts are straining investor sentiment, but there is no remarkable concern about the stock yet.

Gary Flam, a partner at Bel Air Investment Advisors, whose holdings include Boeing, said that he had actually been surprised to see how well the stock had acted given the news about problems in the Dreamliner 787s.

Frequent technical glitches in Boeing 787 Dreamliners forced two major Japanese airlines to ground their respective fleets of the aircraft.

All Nippon Airways announced its decision to ground its fleet of seventeen Dreamliner planes after a technical glitch forced its flight NH 692 from Yamaguchi Ube to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff on Wednesday.

An empty Japan Airlines 787 Dreamliner plane on Monday caught fire at Logan International Airport in Boston on Monday, prompting investigation.

The 787 Dreamliner, which had arrived at Logan Airport from Tokyo, was being inspected for a noon departure when a mechanic noticed smoke and called emergency crews.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has stopped the use of self-service check-in kiosks at Changi Airport as passengers are increasingly inclining to Internet and mobile check-ins.

The Straits Times reported on Tuesday that self-service check-in kiosks were no longer available for SIA customers at Changi Airport as the airline pulled the plug on the machines due to low usage. The SIA had introduced the check-in kiosks in late 2006.

Singapore Airlines' new budget carrier Scoot has announced that its first route will be between Singapore and Sydney.

The new low-cost offshoot of Singapore Airlines has plans to start daily services on the Singapore-Sydney route from sometime in the middle of 2012.

Industrial arbiter Fair Work Australia will now decide on new contracts for Qantas Airways employees as failed to hit agreements with the Australia's biggest airline by yesterday's deadline.

Last month, the labor regulator had given the airline 21 days to reach an agreement with the unions representing pilots, engineers and ground crew.