[SINGAPORE] The upcoming Terminal 5 (T5) should take Changi Airport into the ranks of Asia’s “mega airports”, defined as those that handle more than 100 million passengers a year, said Stefano Baronci, director-general of Airports Council International (ACI) for Asia-Pacific and Middle East.
He was speaking at a media roundtable organised by Changi Airport Group.
Changi Airport Group estimated that T5 will increase the airport’s annual capacity to 140 million passengers, from the current 90 million. The airport’s network is also estimated to grow from around 170 city links today, to more than 200 city links by the mid-2030s.
Along with its many connections and its status as a popular passenger transfer hub, this increase in capacity should turn Changi into a “mega airport”, noted Baronci.
The global airport body expects future mega airports to come from Asia, due to factors such as the region having more megacities – those with more than 10 million people – as well as its macroeconomic development, demographics and population growth.
Of the current 39 megacities in the world, 23 are in Asia.
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In 2024, ACI ranked Singapore the fourth-busiest international airport in the world, behind Dubai, London and Incheon airports. In the year ended March, Singapore set a record for passenger traffic with 68.4 million passengers.
But as a city, Singapore still falls behind those with multiple airports in terms of traffic.
ACI data showed that there are 10 cities with mega airports or mega airport systems – referring to cities with more than one airport. Of these, the US has four – Chicago, New York, Atlanta and Dallas; Europe has three with London, Paris and Istanbul; and Asia has the rest with Beijing, Tokyo and Shanghai.
Baronci expects two more Asian cities to have mega airport systems soon: Bangkok and Seoul, which handled around 93 million and 94 million passengers in 2024, respectively.
He added that with regional airport infrastructure scaling up to meet the demand for predicted industry growth, it is timely that Singapore is starting work on T5 now.
Noting that the ground-breaking ceremony would be held on May 14, he said: “In terms of timing, (Singapore) cannot waste more time than that if (it) wants to keep a position like the one that it is occupying now.”
In the meantime, Changi Airport can stay competitive by looking at other aspects, such as the quality of service, improving the cooperation between airport stakeholders and using artificial intelligence or automation to improve efficiency, he explained.
