Oct. 31st marks an important milestone in Singapore aviation history as Changi Airport’s newest Terminal, T4, finally opens its gates for business.
Operations proceeded smoothly with a steady stream of passengers coming in as early as 4 am to utilize the self-check-in facilities at the T4’s departure hall. Staff at the airport were readily on hand to provide assistance as needed.
Changi T4 operations run smoothly on opening day
The first operational flights at the T4 were Cathay Pacific’s CX659 from Hong Kong which arrived at 5:40 am, and the Hong Kong-bound CX650 flight which left at 6:50 am.
T4 is Changi’s newest terminal in the last decade since Terminal 3’s opening. T4 employs new systems, technologies, and procedures such as a facial recognition system which captures the passenger’s image at various stations, centralized security inspection, and end-to-end self-service check-in facilities.
With the opening of T4, Changi Airport is looking to accommodate 16 million passengers more each year, expanding the airport’s total annual capacity to over 80 million passengers. Moreover, the addition of T4 will help sustain airport operations until the next major expansion through T5, which is set to take place in about 10 to 12 years’ time.
Changi Airport has seen a 5.7 per cent increase in passenger bookings during the first half of 2017, boosted by the air travel demands to and from Northeast, South, and Southeast Asia. Because of this, Changi Airport has announced that they will be progressively adding 130 additional flights on a weekly basis until the end of December this year.