Singapore Changi Airport’s amazing Terminal 3 opens in January

The Mole’s recent visit to Singapore would not have been complete without visiting Changi Airport’s new passenger terminal, Terminal 3, which will open on 9 January 2008.

The stunning 380,000 square metres terminal, located directly opposite Terminal 2, is a seven-storey building with three basement and four above ground levels and has cost……………hang on to your hat……………  S$1.75 billion and it is huge!

By the way it is open at the moment, no flights of course, but for residents of Singapore to go and check it out!

T3 will add a capacity of 22 million passengers a year to the airport, bringing the total capacity of Changi to 70 million passengers and all with two runways – that shows the efficiency of Singapore compared with say Sydney!

Terminal 3 will add another 28 aerobridge gates to Changi Airport, with up to eight that have been designed to handle the new generation of large aircraft, the A380.

What struck me about T3 was not just it size, but is spaciousness with Terminal 3 adopting what is described as  a see-through layout concept, making it easier for travellers to orientate themselves.

This is part of the four guiding principles adopted by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) when designing Terminal 3, namely, clarity, natural lighting, external views and maintainability.

The Authority says travellers will find their passage through Terminal 3 simple and natural, with dependency on signage minimal as individuals can easily orientate themselves.

More natural lighting has been introduced into the building to create an open and spacious ambience and passengers will have extensive visual access to the external landscapes that surround them, including take-offs and landings of aircraft, making queuing less tedious and contribute to the terminal’s overall sense of openness.

Terminal 3 has also been designed for ease of maintenance

Unique Features of Terminal 3 also include a unique roof architecture which allows soft natural light into the building while keeping the tropical heat out, with the one-of-its-kind roof design having more than 900 skylights with specially designed reflector panels which automatically adjust themselves to allow an optimal amount of soft and uniform daylight into the terminal building.

At night, the skylights glow with artificial lighting delicately concealed below the reflector panels, with the overall effect a soothing ambience at all times of the day.

Another key highlight of Terminal 3 is a five-storey high vertical garden, called the “Green Wall”, which spans 300 metres across the main building, visible from both the Departure and Arrival Halls.

The “Green Wall” is covered with climbing plants and is interspersed with four cascading waterfalls. In addition, a sculptured sandstone art wall display located below the “Green Wall” offers an artistic treat for arriving passengers waiting for their baggage.

On the commercial front, more than more than 25,000 square metres of floor space has been allocted for more than 100 retail outlets and over 40 food and beverage outlets plus over 20 service concessions.

The Authority says that to complement the see-through layout concept of Terminal 3, the Departure/Transit Mall is designed to provide a compact single shopping street layout that enhances the visibility of the retail outlets, with the extensive use of glass in the terminal allowing passengers a vantage view of both the airside and landside shopping and dining zones.

The bane of all travellers’ lives may well be resolved at Changi, with Terminal 3 having a fully-automated baggage system which includes a high­speed inter-terminal baggage transfer system and an automated early bag storage facility.

[Pictured left: bags lined up for testing the system.]

Baggage of transfer passengers making connections at different terminals will be transported individually through underground tunnels at a speed of 7 metres per second.

This means it will take only about three minutes for a bag to be transported through the underground baggage tunnel between Terminals 2 and 3.

The baggage handling system will also have an automated early baggage storage system, where bags that are checked-in early or transfer bags with long connection times are stored.

Besides allowing for automatic bag storage and retrieval, the system is also able to automatically update changes in flight itinerary of passengers and thus discharge the bags to the right connecting flights.

The new baggage system will also have an integrated multi-level baggage security screening system to automatically screen bags.

Changi also has an amazing new Automated People Mover System [pictured left] comprises ten train services linking Changi Airport’s three terminals through 6.5 kilometres of elevated train tracks,with the new system having a total of seven train stations, two stations each in Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 and three stations in Terminal 3.

The new trains are equipped with LCD screens providing flight information and other airport information.  The trains’ cabins also have more vertical stanchions and handholds, as well as designated areas for baggage trolleys, enhancing the convenience of users.  There are also plasma TV displays at the train stations to inform passengers of the arrival time of the next train.

Need somewhere to stay, well they have that too in the form of  a brand new Crowne Plaza Hotel right alongside the  terminal, occupying a site of approximately 7,700 square metres, with 9-storeys, up to 350 guest rooms and equipped with amenities and facilities such as a swimming pool, restaurants, meeting and conference rooms, spa lounges as well as a health and fitness club.

The airport hotel will be physically linked to Terminal 3 and hotel guests will also be able to reach Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 via the elevated People Mover System that will link all the three passenger terminals.

In addition, there will be easy access from the hotel to the Changi Airport Mass Rapid Transit station, to facilitate guests heading to other parts of Singapore.

So, Sydney eat your heart out!

An on location in Singapore report by The Mole

The Mole was a guest of Singapore Tourism Board.