Singapore’s Changi Airport opened its Terminal 4 (T4) October 31 with maiden flights from Cathay Pacific and Korean Air.
By the end of the day, T4 had handled 19 arrival and departure flights carrying about 4,200 passengers, according to Changi Airport Group, the company managing the airport.
Cathay Pacific and Korean Air were the first two of nine airlines to be operating at Changi’s brand-new terminal. The Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong was the first to arrive at the new terminal at 5:40 a.m. and the first departure flight from the airline, bound for Hong Kong, left at 6:50 a.m. Korea Air’s first arrival and departure flights at T4 took place at 7:55 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., respectively
T4 started operations after five years of construction, said Tan Lye Teck, executive vice president for airport management of Changi Airport Group.
The new terminal will increase Changi Airport’s capacity by another 16 million passenger movements per annum (mppa), bringing the total to 82 mppa. T4 is expected to handle about eight million passenger movements in its first year of operation.
“We are thankful that everything has been smooth so far today. Our operations teams will continue to keep a close eye on the various systems to ensure that passengers enjoy a seamless travel experience at T4. We look forward to welcoming the other T4 airlines, which will start their operations progressively on 2 and 7 November,” he said.
Cebu Pacific and Spring Airlines begin operations at T4 on November 2, while the AirAsia Group (of four airlines) and Vietnam Airlines will do so on November 7.
Changi Airport is the world’s sixth busiest airport for international traffic. It served a record 58.7 million passengers from around the globe in 2016. With over 100 airlines providing connectivity to 380 cities worldwide, Changi Airport handles about 7,000 flights every week, or about one every 90 seconds.
Photo courtesy of Changi Airport
