Changi Airport to open Terminal 4, AirAsia to shift there

Changi Airport is on track to open its new Terminal 4 (T4) later this year with nine airlines, including AirAsia Group, moving their operations there. Besides AirAsia Group, Cathay Pacific, Cebu Pacific, Korean Air, Spring Airlines and Vietnam Airlines will also move to T4.

Together, they serve an estimated eight million passengers at Changi Airport each year and collectively operate close to 800 flights a week to over 20 regional destinations.

Changi Airport Group (CAG) on Tuesday organised a special media preview of T4 with the session conducted by its director (corporate  and  marketing communications) Dennis Yim.

Yim said CAG would decide on the starting date for T4 operations when operational readiness trials – currently in the final stage – had been completed.

“These trials will involve commercial flights operated by airlines moving to the terminal,” he said.

He said with T4, the total handling capacity of Changi Airport would be raised to 82 million passengers per annum.

“There will thus be more capacity at Changi’s terminals to support the growth plans of all airlines,” he said.

T4 project, which was completed after three years of construction, has a total floor area of 225,000 sq  metres, including the two-storey terminal, car parks and taxi deck.

According to Yim, although just half the size of Terminal 3 (T3), the planners and designers of T4 have managed to deliver a terminal that will have a capacity of 16 million passenger movements a year, two-thirds that of T3.

Yim noted that T4 would be the first terminal at Changi Airport to offer end-to-end Fast and Seamless Travel (FAST) for departing passengers.

“With the extensive use of technology, including facial recognition software, FAST redefines the passenger’s travel experience, enhances operational efficiency and raises productivity.

“Passengers will enjoy the flexibility of checking in at their own convenience, without having to wait for counters to open,” he said. FAST will also yield productivity gains with manpower savings of about 20% expected in the longer term, when operations have stabilised, said Yim.

T4 houses two lounges — Cathay Pacific’s First and Business Class Lounge and SATS PPG Blossom Lounge. Changi Airport is the world’s sixth busiest airport for international traffic, serving 58.7 million passengers from around the globe in 2016.

Including the soon-to-be-opened T4, Changi Airport will have 400 retail and service stores, as well as 140 food and beverages (F and B) outlets. Yim said T4 alone would be home to over 80 retail and F & B outlets.

With over 100 airlines providing connectivity to 380 cities worldwide, Changi Airport handles about 7,000 flights every week, or about one every 90 seconds.