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Changi Airport’s Terminal 4 to open on Oct 31

SINGAPORE — Changi Airport Terminal 4 (T4) will open on Oct 31, marking the beginning of the future of air travel with automated processes from check-in to boarding, among other new features.

Changi Airport’s new Terminal 4 (T4) opened on Oct 31, 2017, with nine airlines shifting over to commence operations in the new terminal over the course of a week.

Changi Airport’s new Terminal 4 (T4) opened on Oct 31, 2017, with nine airlines shifting over to commence operations in the new terminal over the course of a week.

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SINGAPORE — Changi Airport Terminal 4 (T4) will open on Oct 31, marking the beginning of the future of air travel with automated processes from check-in to boarding, among other new features.

Nine airlines, including Cathay Pacific, Korean Air and AirAsia’s four carriers, will move in in the first week, with the first flight CX 659 scheduled to touch down from Hong Kong before dawn that day, followed closely by CX 650 taking off for Hong Kong at around 6.50am.

Announcing the start date for T4 in a Facebook post Wednesday (Sept 6), Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan described the opening as a “labour of love”, with more than 100 trials involving 2,500 airport staff and 1,500 volunteers being carried out since construction works were completed in December last year.

“After endless rounds of testing and fine-tuning, we are ready to open T4. Another big step forward in our journey as a global #airhub,” added Mr Khaw, who is Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure.

The terminal, which is slightly less than half the size of T3 but can handle two-thirds of its traffic, is capable of accommodating up to 16 million passengers a year. This would up Changi Airport’s total annual capacity to 82 million travellers.

Built at where the former Budget Terminal used to be, T4 will not be linked to the other terminals by SkyTrain. Instead, shuttle buses, which will operate at 5-minute intervals during peak hours, will connect travellers to T2 via an 8- to 10-minute ride — linking them to the Changi Airport MRT Station. The free service, available around the clock, will run from both the public area and airside, for transiting passengers.

The number of passengers needing to transfer will be “small”, as the vast majority of the customers of the nine airlines will be on origin-destination routes, said a spokesperson of Changi Airport Group (CAG), in response to queries.

The Land Transport Authority and bus operators said in a separate news release that a new Service 110 from Sengkang to all four terminals at Changi Airport will be launched on Oct 22, to enhance connectivity.

Services 24, 34, and 36, which go to the three existing terminals now, will also be extended to call at T4. These services loop from Ang Mo Kio, Punggol, and Tomlinson Road, respectively.

CAG’s executive vice president of airport management Tan Lye Teck said in a statement that the past months of tests and trials have been “a very crucial period ... not only to ensure that the systems work well, but also to understand how passengers navigate the new terminal”.

(click to enlarge) First arriving and departing flights at the new Terminal 4. Photo: CAG

During the trials, volunteers role-playing as passengers tried a range of processes, including the Fast and Seamless Travel (Fast) self-service options at check-in, bag drop, immigration and boarding. They also went through the centralised security screening — a first, unlike the other terminals that do this at the boarding gates — and finding information on flights and around the terminal, among other things, CAG said.

Mr Tan said the trials have thrown up areas for improvement, which they will spend the next few weeks to iron out.

The emphasis on efficiency at T4 comes at a crucial time where other regional airports are competing fiercely for a share of the fast-growing market. It will be another decade or so before Terminal 5 opens and expands Changi Airport’s capacity significantly — to around 150 million passengers a year, a shade off double what it will be when T4 is up and running.

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