Changi Airport applauds airport community for rallying together for service excellence and resilience in fight against Covid-19

SINGAPORE, 26 October 2022 – At Changi Airport’s Annual Airport Celebration (AAC) 2022, the first physical event after a hiatus of more than two years, the airport community gathered together today to honour exemplary acts of service and pay tribute to the resilience demonstrated by the ONE Changi partners during Covid-19.

A total of seven awards across four categories, namely ‘All-Star Service Team of the Year’, ‘Outstanding Service Staff of the Year’, ‘Outstanding Service Team of the Year’ and ‘Service Partner of the Year’ were given out. Mr S. Iswaran, Minister for Transport and Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations, graced the event and presented the awards to the recipients.

Demonstrating a joint mission of selfless care

The team of six who received the ‘All-Star Service Team of the Year’ award are from P-Serv Pte Ltd, SATS Ltd and Certis Aviation Security Pte Ltd. They worked together round-the-clock to care for a 74-year-old wheelchair-bound passenger who was travelling alone post-surgery during the pandemic.

As his family had mistakenly booked a later flight for him, the passenger had to spend more than 32 hours layover in the transit holding area because of the few flights operating during the pandemic. During this time, the team took turns to help the passenger to the toilet many times, assisted to empty the drainage bag attached to his urinary catheter and offered him warm blankets, water and food, to ensure that his layover was as comfortable as possible.

This exemplary act of service took place at the height of the pandemic, under challenging working conditions of full personal protective equipment (PPE), personified the ONE Changi mission of touching lives and serving from the heart.

Helping a passenger who lost hope of flying home

Back in July 2020, when many countries implemented border control measures, Changi Experience Ambassador Andiappan Velu Hemalatha (Hema) met a passenger who urgently needed to return home to India to see his critically ill mother but was unable to find an air ticket.

After Hema advised him to contact his High Commission for help, the passenger found that the fastest way home for him was on a repatriation flight, which he did not qualify for as he was a Permanent Resident (PR) of Singapore. In desperation, the passenger gave up his Singapore PR status, in the hope of getting onto a repatriation flight. Trying to help the passenger secure a seat on the next flight out, Hema, together with Changi Experience Executive Abirammi Porzelian, accompanied the passenger to the airline counter and helped to contact the airline’s duty manager, only to be informed that the flight was full. Nevertheless, the pair did not give up and continued to wait with the passenger.

The group eventually received the good news that there was a last-minute no-show, and the seat could be assigned to the passenger. Abirammi then escorted the passenger to the boarding gate to ensure that he boarded his flight safely. For the team’s commitment in helping to send the passenger home, they are recipients of the ‘Outstanding Service Team of the Year’ award.

Responding quickly to fast-changing operating environment

With the pandemic fundamentally disrupting many operational processes at Changi Airport, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) was agile and adapted to support the evolving demands of air travel, to keep borders open and secure.

ICA sped up the rollout of the biometric system using face and iris recognition technology, shouldered the additional responsibilities related to the pandemic, such as Electronic Health Declaration and checking of vaccination certificates, while continuing to press ahead with the implementation of the New Clearance Concept, which will transform border clearance processes to make travel more seamless and efficient. For its contributions to border security, passenger experience as well as strong display of ONE Changi spirit, ICA is awarded the Service Partner of the Year Award.

Emerging stronger as ONE Changi

As air travel continues to recover, Changi Airport's continuous pursuit of service excellence drives the airport community to offer the best Changi Experience as the airport welcomes more passengers.

Speaking at the event, Mr Lee Seow Hiang, CEO of Changi Airport Group (CAG) said, “Our gathering here tonight as ONE Changi after more than two years of Covid, is especially precious and meaningful. On behalf of CAG, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you, our partners who have stayed the course with Changi. In each of your own domains, you contributed generously amid your own challenges, to help Changi Airport hold up and press on under the blow of the pandemic, paving the way for the air hub’s recovery that we are enjoying today.”

The full list of this year’s award recipients can be found in Annex A.