Infrastructure investments at Changi Airport to prepare for future growth

SINGAPORE, 8 February 2013 – Changi Airport Group (CAG) today released its initial plans for the development of Changi Airport’s Terminal 4 (T4) and its proposal to enhance the capacity of the airfield to provide for more aircraft parking stands.

These infrastructure investments will ensure that Changi Airport is well positioned to remain a major global aviation hub, ready to meet the challenges of growing passenger and aircraft traffic in the years ahead.  In the following weeks, CAG will engage selected airport partners and members of the airline community operating at Changi on the T4 development and airfield enhancement plans. 

T4 to serve both full service and low cost carriers

T4, with a planned capacity of 16 million passenger movements a year, will raise Changi Airport’s handling capacity to 82 million a year[1].  It will ensure that, even as traffic grows, the passenger experience at Changi is not compromised. 

The new terminal, to be built on the old Budget Terminal site, will be a two-storey building with a height of 25 metres and a gross floor area of about 160,000 square metres. 

To cater to the future needs of airlines as their business models evolve, T4 will be designed with the flexibility to meet the operational needs of both regional full service and low cost carriers.  It will primarily handle narrow body aircraft and be designed to enable quick turnaround of flights.  The airside transfer of passengers and baggage between T4 and the other terminals will also be provided for.

T4 will have a look, feel and ambience comparable to Terminals 1 and 2.  Importantly, it will offer what passengers wanted more of in the Budget Terminal – passenger-friendly facilities and attractive commercial offerings.  To enhance passenger convenience, accessibility and experience, especially in adverse weather conditions, aerobridges will be available at T4’s boarding gates. 

Road improvements will be made to ensure smooth traffic flow to and from the terminal.  These will include a new road to funnel outgoing traffic directly from T4 onto the East Coast Parkway.  A multi-storey car park with spaces for 1,200 vehicles will be constructed next to the terminal. 

Focus on improving productivity and efficiency

In light of expected manpower challenges that Changi Airport’s groundhandlers and service partners will face, T4 will feature initiatives to increase productivity of resources and improve efficiency of processes.  For instance, departure and arrival immigration control as well as pre-boarding security screening will be centralised for more efficient deployment of manpower and equipment.

In line with the trend of self-service options at airports around the world, T4 will provide more kiosks for self check-in, self bag-tagging and self bag-drops.  As use of these options increases, airlines and their groundhandling agents will be able to reduce processing times and staffing required for each flight, improving productivity.

The streamlining of processes at key touch points including check-in, immigration and security through the use of technology and fast and seamless travel initiatives is being explored to make T4 more user friendly to passengers.

Unlike at the former Budget Terminal, baggage sortation at T4 will be fully automated, again to reduce reliance on scarce manpower.  The baggage handling system will also be equipped with the latest technology to enable heavy and odd sized bags to be handled with ease even by older workers.

Airfield capacity to be increased

Concurrent with the development of T4, major airfield works will also be undertaken at Changi Airport to increase the number of aircraft parking stands to support the needs of all airlines operating at Changi. 

A 38-hectare land plot south of Terminal 3, housing the airport nursery as well as a reservoir, will be converted into an aircraft parking area to house 17 narrow-body and nine wide-body aircraft stands.  An overhead vehicular bridge across Airport Boulevard will be constructed to enable buses and other airside vehicles to move from T4 to these aircraft stands.  Including new aircraft stands to be constructed at the T4 site, the number of parking stands at Changi Airport will be increased by 24% to more than 180.

With the additional built-up and paved surfaces, major drainage works will also be undertaken – including the construction of a new reservoir – to prevent flooding in the event of torrential rainfall.

Continuing Changi’s success as a global air hub

The estimated budget for the T4 building is about S$600 million with another S$680 million estimated for the construction of additional parking stands as well as supporting airfield infrastructure, security requirements, specialised airport systems, ancillary buildings, and road and drainage works.  CAG will release more details of T4’s design in due course.  Construction of T4 will begin this year with the terminal expected to be ready in 2017.

Mr Lee Seow Hiang, CAG’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “Throughout its history, Changi Airport has always stayed ahead of its capacity needs.  This approach has underpinned Changi’s success as an air hub – an airport that passengers love and airlines appreciate.

“Along with the measures announced by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore to improve runway capacity, our infrastructure investments over the next four to five years lay the groundwork for us to continue delivering a great Changi Experience and attracting more airlines to fly to Changi Airport.  We are excited about these projects and look forward to their successful completion with the support of our many partners.”

[1] Plans to expand capacity at Terminal 1 will raise Changi Airport’s capacity by another three million.

See attached map for location of Terminal 4 and aircraft apron area to be developed.