The full reopening of T2 comes amid anticipation of a full travel recovery in 2024, or earlier. - ST
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): The northern wing of Changi Airport Terminal 2 will reopen in October 2023, several months ahead of schedule.
This will take T2’s handling capacity to 28 million passengers a year, up from 23 million before the terminal was closed in May 2020 for upgrading amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Changi Airport’s total handling capacity will increase to 90 million passengers a year, up from 85 million. It currently has a capacity of around 70 million passengers annually.
Announcing the development on Wednesday (May 3) at the 2023 Changi Airline Awards ceremony held at Shangri-La hotel, Transport Minister S. Iswaran said travellers can look forward to new amenities and innovative retail and food and beverage offerings at the refreshed northern wing.
“These additions will further enhance the distinctive Changi travel experience,” he said.
He added: “We are now poised at the last stretch of recovery, but there is no room for complacency. As we rebuild to pre-Covid-19 traffic volumes, we are working hard to ensure that Changi has both the physical and operational capacity to support the increase in flights and passengers.”
T2 had reopened in phases from May 2022, starting with key touchpoints such as arrival immigration, baggage claim belts and contact gates at the southern wing of the terminal. By October 2022, the entire southern wing was reopened.
While the upgrading of the northern wing of the terminal was slated to be completed in 2024, there have been signs that the work was progressing at a faster pace than expected, with some Singapore Airlines flights departing from Gates E1, E2 and E3 - part of T2’s northern wing – in late March.
The full reopening of T2 comes amid anticipation of a full travel recovery in 2024, or earlier.
According to latest statistics from CAG, passenger traffic at Changi Airport has continued to grow steadily in the first quarter of 2023.
In the month of March, the airport handled 4.63 million passenger movements, more than 82 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels.
Aircraft movements, which include landings and takeoffs, totalled 26,000, about 81 per cent of March 2019 levels.
For the first three months of 2023, Changi Airport clocked 13 million passenger movements, with 74,000 aircraft movements registered over the same period.
In comparison, a total of 68.3 million passengers passed through Changi Airport in 2019, before Covid-19 struck, with 382,000 commercial flights taking off or landing.
CAG said on Wednesday that as at April 1, 102 airlines operate more than 6,000 weekly scheduled flights connecting Singapore to 145 cities in 49 countries and territories worldwide.
This is up from December 2022, when 95 airlines operated more than 5,500 weekly scheduled flights at the airport, with connections to 140 cities worldwide.
CAG said Changi Airport has continued to see strong performance across key source markets, with the strongest growth in North America, Southwest Pacific and Europe.
Passenger flows to and from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau also showed strong recovery, with traffic doubling in the first quarter of 2023 compared with the fourth quarter of 2022.
This was driven by the progressive resumption of scheduled passenger services, CAG noted.
On the air cargo front, CAG said demand has remained soft, especially in the first two months of 2023, amid global economic uncertainty and inflationary pressures.
As a result, airfreight movements at Changi Airport fell 9 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023 to 417,000 tonnes.
