The latest expansions at Singapore’s Changi airport are just the beginning, says John Church
Planning ahead is embedded in the Singaporean psyche, and nowhere is this more evident than at the city-state’s front door – Changi airport (CAG), a shining example of long-term development in anyone’s book.
Back in 1975, when the decision to build it was made, planners included large parcels of reclaimed land that have since lain fallow awaiting expansion options. Terminal 1 opened in 1981, followed by T2 in 1991 and T3 in 2008. Now major expansion is set to propel Changi – voted the world’s best airport by Business Traveller readers for 28 years in a row – into its next phase.
CAG has two runways and is working on a third. Terminal 4 is under construction and will open in 2017, while a huge fifth terminal, referred to as Changi East, is planned for the coming decade.
CAG chief executive officer Lee Seow Hiang says that, despite a challenging operating environment in the 2014-15 financial year, Changi maintained passenger traffic of 54 million. It has a total capacity of 66 million passengers. Built on the site of the old budget airline terminal, T4 will be able to handle a further 16 million. It will also showcase the FAST check-in system.
Then there is the Jewel, a multi-use lifestyle complex designed by Moshe Safdie (the man behind Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands resort), which is scheduled for completion in 2018, beginning operation early the following year. With its artificial rain vortex, enormous indoor forest and jaw-dropping architecture, the Jewel was built for big-ticket icon status.
Terminal 5 will be capable of handling 50 million passengers and all terminals and runways will operate as an integrated system, with full connectivity for passengers – for example, landing at T5 and connecting at T2. The three-runway system should be complete by the early 2020s, and the fifth terminal a few years after.
“Our immediate challenge is with runway capacity,” says Ivan Tan, CAG’s senior vice-president, corporate and marketing. “With [the existing] terminals, we still have quite a bit of capacity. With the runways, we are approaching a level where three will be a lot more comfortable.
“Runway three is used by the military at the moment, and it will have to be extended. But the real challenging work is to connect this, because a plane landing at runway three may still have to move to [all of the terminals], so a whole network of taxiways has to be constructed.”
To complicate matters, the main Changi Coast Road currently runs through the planned upgraded airport, splitting Terminals 1, 2, 3 and 4 from Changi East. The road will, therefore, have to be diverted post-reclamation.
TERMINAL 4
The first of these big projects to roll out is the 195,000 sqm Terminal 4, which is now close to completion. Korean Air, Vietnam Airlines, Air Asia Berhad, Indonesia Air Asia and Thai Air Asia will be joining Cathay Pacific in bringing their operations to the new facility. Cathay Pacific in particular is keen to introduce new branding in its airport lounge.
Negotiations are continuing with other airlines and CAG expects a few more on board before T4 opens. Leasing of 17,000 sqm of retail space (about 80 outlets) is also under way.
Tan Hanjie, manager of CAG’s T4 programme management office, says the layout is simple, with upper-level departures and lower-level arrivals, similar to T1, T2 and T3. Departing passengers will be met with 17 check-in counters, with provision for one more, and will be able to use either manual check-ins or the new FAST self-service kiosks for fully automated check-in, bag drop, immigration clearance and gate boarding. The system is progressively rolling out in the rest of the airport.
Unlike the other terminals, T4’s FAST system will feature centralised departure immigration and security screening areas using biometrics including facial recognition technology. When passengers check in, the airport will take a picture of them, which will be matched against their passport. Just before they board, that same photo will again be matched with the passenger who is about to board.
T4 is supported by 17 smaller aircraft bays for regional airlines and four that can hold larger aircraft, primarily for Cathay Pacific. The distance from the airline’s lounge to the apron is less than 200 metres. The terminal also supports nine bus points with direct road access to a further 17 narrow-body and nine wide-body remote stands.
“We adopted an open-gate concept, so the passengers don’t need to arrive at the gate earlier. For arriving passengers it’s even more convenient,” Hanjie says. “There is only one direction for people to move. They congregate at an escalator area and move through to immigration, clear immigration and on the left is baggage pick-up and then through to the greeting hall. We’ll also offer a shuttle lounge for passengers needing to travel to T2.”
Premium passengers will have 2,000 sqm of space dedicated to airline lounges on the transit area mezzanine level. Other than Cathay Pacific, CAG says there is room for about two more lounges, with several interested parties.
The airside section has more than 15,000 sqm of retail space, translating to 65 shops, and food and drink outlets, while a walk-through duty-free zone covers 2,500 sqm. There is also a “heritage zone” planned, which will offer local retail and dining brands. Landside features 5,000 sqm of retail space, and there is a further 1,100 sqm of duty-free in arrivals.
Jewel complex
Philip Yim, CEO of Jewel Changi airport says: “We’re out to create something that’s truly world class, something that will have an affinity with Singapore and at the same time be recognisable around the world.”
Featuring a multi-faceted exterior that mirrors its name, Yim says the complex will also have a vast 22,300 sqm of air-conditioned gardens. “The central water feature is the key and the hub, he says. “It’s a rain vortex and the highest indoor waterfall in the world. Singapore is renowned for its weather, and during massive rainstorms we will switch off the pump and the water will come from the natural storms.”
The Forest Valley will be air-conditioned and accessible along footpaths that run from levels one to five. Or you can go through the shopping areas. A light and sound show at night will be projected on to the vortex.
The Jewel will have 53,800 sqm of retail space and a 130-room Yotel hotel, with rooms leased by the hour. The total floor area will be more than 130,000 sqm, and there will be 2,500 parking spots. Jewel sits between the three existing terminals – it will be joined to T1, with T2 and T3 also being linked up via skybridges.
“Currently you can’t walk between all three terminals,” Yim says. “You can walk between T2 and T3, but you can’t actually walk between T2 and T1, and T3 and T1, so in the future it will all be connected.”
Also planned are early check-in counters so those with layovers can enjoy more time before their flight. “At the same time, because the Jewel sits in front of T1, it will increase T1’s handling capacity to 24 million. So come 2018, our current 66 million will go up to 85 million, giving us headroom into the middle of next decade,” he says.
Changi East
Dwarfing them all is the Changi East Project, the fifth terminal and third runway. Changi East covers 1,000 hectares next to the existing Changi West (1,300 hectares), which houses the other terminals and the Jewel. The third runway is two-thirds built and requires extending, having been used previously by the military.
Choy explains that over the years, as Changi has grown, it has found that there are great advantages to small and modular terminals. Passengers love the fact that you can get out quickly from the gates.“But operationally, the bigger airline groups – and you see this with Singapore Airlines [SIA] and the bigger carriers – have outgrown a single terminal,” he says.
“Today SIA straddles T2 and T3, and operationally it’s a little ugly. You may find if you’re trying to pick up a friend or relative on an SIA flight, you wouldn’t know which terminal they are landing at until two hours before landing because they have to decide where to distribute the aircraft, so it creates problems for the big carriers.
“With the benefit of this knowledge we are confident enough to build T5 as a single integrated complex of about 50 million [passengers per annum capacity] to begin with, and that is big enough to house most of these big airline groups.
"We still have to negotiate the kinds of carriers going in there, but based on the product positioning it’s likely to be carriers that are networked and have hubbing operations, and that do a lot of transfers. Definitely one of the first customers we are talking to is SIA.”
Choy adds: “One of the first priorities is to get a three-runway system up that massively expands our capacity for the airport, not just for T5, but for T1, T2, T3 and T4 as well, and we hope to have that done by the early 2020s, something like 2022 – we try to keep it a bit vague [as] the issue is there are multiple steps.
“A three-runway system is not the same as runway three. We’ll first get runway three up and running, but then we will need to close off runway two for a while to connect up the supporting taxiways and the underground facilities and so on, before all are operational again.
"So runway three first, then a period of closure of runway two – we’re trying to keep it at less than two years at this point, when all the connections are done to make it a single entity – and then three runways become operational.” Work is scheduled to begin next month.
With a flight every 90 seconds into Changi, the airport is betting its expansion on continued market growth. “Asia-Pacific [APAC] will continue to power on,” Choy says.
“We still believe we’re only beginning to see the emergence of the middle class. The very nature of APAC’s geography makes aviation the only real mode of transport for the region.
"We pride ourselves in being ahead of the demand curve. We will need something in the 2020s when we look at the charts, at the growth. And not just thickening old roots, but growing new ones. The tier-three cities of today will be the tier-one cities of tomorrow in China, India and Indonesia.”
CHANGI IN NUMBERS
- 100 AIRLINES (ANS COUNTING)
- 320 CITIES CONNECTED
- 6,800 ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES A WEEK
- 54 MILLION PASSENGERS PER YEAR
- 2 RUNWAYS WITH 1 MORE BEING BUILT
- 3 TERMINALS WITH 2 MORE PLANNED
- 66 MILLION CURRENT PASSENGER CAPACITY
- 85 MILLION CAPACITY ONCE T4 AND THE JEWEL OPEN
- 50 MILLION EXTRA CAPACITY ADDED BY T5
- 195,000 SQM – SIZE OF NEW TERMINAL 4
- OVER 134,000 SQM – SIZE OF JEWEL COMPLEX
- 1,000 HECTARES – SIZE OF PLANNED CHANGI EAST
