Singapore’s Changi International Airport has won just about every award there is in the aviation industry — including the title of world’s best airport for 2025.
Now, Singapore is expanding its national airport, breaking ground this week on a fifth terminal that is due to open in the mid-2030s.
Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong led the official groundbreaking ceremony on May 14.
A nation-city of six million people, Singapore has poured all of its commercial aviation resources into its single airport.
While other airports around the world have separate terminals for domestic and international departures, every single flight at Changi is international, which means that passengers can flow freely through all the public sections of the airport.
Yam Kum Weng, CEO of the Changi Group, described the planned terminal as “mega yet cozy,” adding that it would deliver “a personalized, stress-free and positively surprising airport experience.”
The T5 project was originally announced in 2013 and scheduled to break ground in 2020, but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, Covid did more than influence T5’s timing.
Additional measures were added to the new building plan, including a ventilation system that can be “activated during a pandemic.”
Passengers will all use contactless entry points, which was already part of Changi’s strategy to go completely document-free, using only biometrics.
Layered roof leaves offer a way to let air circulate — and a means to split the terminal into several mini-terminals in case one of them needs to be blocked off quickly to segregate passengers or test for diseases.
When T5 is completed, it will become the primary terminal for Singapore Airlines and its low-cost carrier Scoot. Currently, the two are scattered across the other terminals.
Airport as tourist attraction
One reason for Changi’s accolades is the significant number of activities and attractions under its roof.
There are multiple gardens — butterflies, cacti, water lilies, sunflowers and orchids — plus kids’ play areas, a giant slide, a rooftop swimming pool, and a movie theater.
The latest new offering is Changi Jewel, a 10-story luxury retail complex whose centerpiece is the world’s largest indoor waterfall. Completed in 2019, it is accessible even to visitors who are not traveling.
“Efficiency and experience are not mutually exclusive,” said Trent Tesch, head designer for the project at Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), one of the firms collaborating on the new terminal design.
“Too often, airports are designed as pure machines for movement — efficient but impersonal, reducing passengers to mere numbers in a system. Instead, T5 is conceived as a vibrant microcity that is distinctly Singaporean — lush, layered, and deeply human.”
Singapore’s location near the equator means it has a tropical climate: high temperatures, heavy rains, and thick humidity are staples of daily life.
T5 was designed with Singapore’s climate in mind.
There will be a large rooftop solar power system that will power more than just the airport — according to KPF, it will generate enough to power about 20,000 four-room apartments per year.
More than 68 million passengers passed through Changi in the past year, making it the fourth busiest air hub in the world. From Singapore, travelers can fly directly to 170 cities.
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