Singapore’s Changi Airport is getting a major upgrade with Terminal 5

For decades Singapore’s Changi Airport has been awarded as the “World’s Best Airports” at the annual Skytrax awards, because of how this airport is considered a destination itself as opposed to just another airport from where people board or deboard a plane.

In late July, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that the new Terminal 5 (T5) will add capacity for around 50 million people per year. This is in addition to the current 4 terminals which manage nearly 82 million passengers per year.

The details for Terminal 5 were revealed earlier this year with officials promising that it will be much more than a piece of transport infrastructure but rather a social extension of Singapore itself. The construction is set to begin in 2024 and reportedly it will be open by 2035 for passengers.

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“Changi airport T5 is integral to the nation's long-term development plans for aviation,” said the Singapore PM, the local media reported. Reports have indicated that T5 is going to be located within the 1,080-hectare Changi East development and built in two phases. The terminal will also be constructed keeping in mind the lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, because of which the work of building the terminal also stopped for 2 years.

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“We concluded that the future of aviation remains bright. Now, with borders reopening, people are travelling again”, said Lee, reports CNN. He added, “Passenger traffic has already exceeded half of pre-Covid-19 levels.” The PM also went on to point out how air travel will keep growing because of the “fast-expanding middle class in our region” which is why they decided to go ahead with the T5 construction.

According to the officials, the T5 will also account for the challenges faced during the pandemic, in line with which the terminal has been designed to scale up or down and operate as smaller sub-terminals. This would allow authorities to reduce the transmission of diseases by isolating passengers from different flights. The new terminal is also set to feature contactless systems at passenger touchpoints as well as enhanced ventilation systems.

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The terminal jointly designed by international architecture firms KPF and Heatherwick Studio will also account for sustainability and it will be a “Green Mark Platinum Super Low Energy Building” which will be certified by the country’s Building and Construction Authority. The carbon footprint of T5 will be reduced by the use of solar panels and smart building management systems, said the report.

Changi Airport was first opened in 1981, replacing the Paya Lebar airport. Over the years, it garnered attention for its previously unheard amenities including, the world’s first transit area swimming pool‎, a news hub, a movie theatre, and a sports arena. The airport today also has the world's tallest indoor waterfall, a forest valley, and a four-storey garden with more than 235,000 square feet of landscaping.

(With inputs from agencies)