Challenges for Changi

Singapore’s award-winning airport is on high alert. Several neighbouring airports, intent on building market share in the world’s richest future air travel market, are planning expanded facilities that match or exceed Changi’s passenger capacity. Singapore’s answer? Bigger and better.

by CHIEF CORRESPONDENT, TOM BALLANTYNE  

February 1st 2014

Print Friendly

Singapore’s Changi Airport, supreme for so long in Southeast Asia, is under threat – and it is wasting no time in doing something about it. Read More »

'Airports require sufficient capacity to attract new airlines, add new city links and increase frequencies. Without this, airlines will turn to other airports that can better facilitate their growth'

Lui Tuck Yew Singapore’s transport minister

Speaking at the recent ground-breaking ceremony for Terminal 4 (T4) at the airport complex, the Singapore Transport Minister, Lui Tuck Yew, said: “Airports require sufficient capacity to attract new airlines, add new city-links and increase frequencies.

“Without this, airlines would turn to other airports that can better facilitate their growth, and Changi would risk losing connectivity and consequently, its mantle of being Asia’s premier hub.”

He was right to press the point. Rival airports in the region are gearing up capacity to challenge Singapore’s status. Nearby, in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur International Airport will increase its annual capacity to 100 million passengers a year by 2020 and Hong Kong International Airport is aiming for 97 million passengers by 2030. South Korea’s Incheon Airport and Jakarta also have ambitious plans to raise airport capacity. They are not alone.

Further afield, the huge airport cities of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, and the Middle East carriers that serve them, have persuaded hundreds of thousands of Australasian travelers bound for Europe to bypass Singapore and opt for a one-stop journey to their European destination via the Middle East.

At Changi, its new, $1 billion T4 complex is a part of a bold plan to head off the competition. Planned to be completed by 2017, it will lift the airport’s passenger handling capacity from 51 million this year around 82 million.

And that’s not the end of it. T4 includes the addition of a third runway and a mega-terminal, T5, by the mid-2020s, which will increase capacity to 135 million passengers a year. Planning and preparatory works have started on the conversion of the existing Runway 3, which is now used by the military, for the expansion.

Runway 3 will be extended from 2.75km to 4km to handle larger passenger aircrafts and will have new navigation aids, airfield lighting systems and a fire station as part of the expansion. Almost 40km of new taxiways will also be constructed to connect the runway to the present airport complex.

Changi has attracted some 100 airlines, flying to over 250 cities in 60 countries and territories worldwide, to its facilities. A flight takes off or lands at the airport roughly every 100 seconds.

When the T4 is completed is will be have a gross floor area of 195,000 square metres but it will be outstripped by T5, which will be larger that Terminal 2 and 3 combined, with a a free standing terminal lar9inn will be a single-standing terminal larger than Terminal 2 and 3 combined. T5, which will be built in East Changi, is planned to process 50 million passengers a year and feature in statistics as one as the largest terminals in the world – with plans being made for its expansion if necessary.

Airports Council International (ACI) predicts the majority of international traffic in the Asia-Pacific will be intra-regional, with total traffic in the region more than tripling from 1.6 billion passengers in 2011 to 5 billion in 2031, making it the world’s largest aviation market.

Changi Airport Terminal 4 presents a new passenger travel experience through its unique terminal design and innovative use of technology

“For Changi, passenger traffic is forecast to grow by around 5% annually for the rest of the decade. In the first nine months of 2013, the growth in passenger traffic at Changi was already 5.6%,” said the transport minister.

“T4, a test bed for new concepts, must maintain the premium passenger experience for which Changi is reputed. It is also our springboard to the future. The first critical challenge for T4 is integration with the rest of Changi Airport, especially for transferring passengers flying in and out of T4. The second challenge is to use T4 as test-bed to deploy in T5, so we can raise productivity levels and economize space.”

Defining features of T4 and T5 will be self-service options from check-in to automate immigration and boarding gate clearances.

In December last year, the Changi Airport Group and CapitalMalls Asia Ltd signed a joint venture agreement to build a mixed-use development at the airport opposite Terminal 1 that is intended as a world class lifestyle destination in Singapore – and an additional lure to city for travelers. The partners promise Project Jewel will offer not only airport operation facilities but outstanding architecture, shopping, dining and leisure attractions.

Changi Airports International (CAI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Changi Airport Group (CAG), the operator of the airport since 1981, has been widening its influence around the airport world. CAI is an investor, manager and consultant in more than 40 airports in 20 plus countries across four continents.

Among various consultancy projects, it is advising the Brunei Economic Development Board on upgrading Brunei International Airport and has undertaken project management services during the airport construction stage.

At King Fahd International Airport in Saudi Arabia, CAI is completing its sixth and final year of an airport management contract and is advising the airport on its corporatization. Other recent projects include a 26% investment in India’s Bengal Aerotropolis Project Limited and the taking of a 30% equity in a joint venture to develop four airports in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region.

CAI also has established a partnership with Odebrecht TransPort (OTP) which will expand, maintain and develop Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport (Galeão) in Rio de Janeiro, the international gateway for South America, including Brazil. In 2012, 17.5 million passengers passed through Galeão. By the end of the joint venture’s tenure, the annual passenger throughput will be 60 million passengers a year, said CAI. The first phase of the airport upgrade construction will include construction of 26 aerobridges and car parks by April 2016.

Lee Seow Hiang, chief executive of CAG, said: “This investment signifies an important step forward for CAG and CAI in terms of our presence in a new and important market, and gives us the valuable opportunity to participate and contribute to the region’s aviation growth.”

Changi was named the World’s Best Airport at the 2013 Skytrax World Airport Awards, ahead of South Korea’s Incheon International, Amsterdam Schiphol, Hong Kong International Airport and Beijing Capital International Airport.