Singapore airport to add massive terminal

Singapore airport to add massive terminal

Planes sit on the tarmac at Singapore’s Changi International Airport. The airport is planning to add a new terminal that will be as large as its first three terminals put together. (Reuters photo)
Planes sit on the tarmac at Singapore’s Changi International Airport. The airport is planning to add a new terminal that will be as large as its first three terminals put together. (Reuters photo)

Changi Airport's new passenger terminal is likely to be bigger than all its first three terminals combined, a media report said on Wednesday.

According to the Straits Times, Terminal 5 is expected to have an initial capacity of up to 50 million passengers a year, with the possibility of increasing to 70 million if necessary.

The terminal, made up of a main facility linked to satellite terminals via underground rail, will be built on reclaimed land. More details are expected to be unveiled by the Transport Ministry next week, said the paper.

The facility is expected to open in the middle of the next decade. Development will be undertaken in phases, so as to allow for adjustments.

Analysts expect that Changi Airport, which handled 54.1 million passengers last year, could see 100 million passengers a year by 2030.

But any plans for aggressive expansion will also have to take into account uncertainties in the industry, such as a slowdown in the growth of budget carriers. 

"The best way forward is to commit to the basic steps upfront, and then adjust the later details based on better information at different stages in the future," transport expert Terence Fan said.

"Hopefully, the 2025 timeline for T5 is a target of this kind, which itself can be stretched further in the future if the forecast traffic increases do not materialise soon enough."

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