LONDON – Singapore’s Changi Airport Group (CAG) has announced the proposed re-opening of their Terminal 4 (T4) facility in September, as passenger traffic continues to recover steadily.
The Airport will also commence departure operations in Terminal 2 (T2) from October with the rising demand.
The re-openings will enable the airport full recovery to pre-pandemic passenger traffic levels in the winter season beginning 30 October 2022.
The growth in travel demand
Since Singapore relaxed its travel restrictions in April this year, there has been a strong recovery in Changi Airport passenger movements.
As at the first week of June, passenger traffic rebounded to 48% of pre-Covid levels. As a result, airlines have requested to launch more flights through the winter period.
T4 will re-open to handle both departures and arrivals, and new leases are currently being negotiated and signed with airline and airport partners and other potential tenants.
It is anticipated that previous airline operators working from T4 will return upon its re-opening.
T2 departure operations resume in October, following the recent commencement of arrival operations in May.
The T2 facilities have undergone a facelift, with new retail outlets and duty free stores becoming available to passengers in August and September respectively.
Singapore’s travel recovery
Mr Lee Seow Hiang, CAG’s Chief Executive Officer, said “The fast rebound in travel demand has given us great encouragement to prepare Changi Airport for the full recovery of passenger volume back to pre-Covid-19 levels.”
“The additional capacity offered by T4 and T2 will put Changi Airport in a good position to capture this recovery and support the business and operational needs of airlines.”
Like other major airport hubs, Changi have used the suspension of operations to upgrade infrastructure and customer facilities. The move toward recovery has also involved the recruitment of operation personnel. Mr Lee Seow Hiang, stated:
“To support the travel recovery, our airport partners have been actively recruiting more manpower to fill various positions in the airport, from frontline staff to airside workers.”
“At the same time, we are accelerating efforts to secure more tenants for the two terminals, to better serve our passengers.”
“We are optimistic and excited about the future for Changi Airport and look forward to serving passengers again in our reopened terminals.”
The Changi Airport T4 announcement comes at a time when London Heathrow have similarly re-opened their T4 facility to meet rising demand across the Northern summer period.
