Why Singapore Airport will still grow

Singapore Airport is thinking big.

Often at the top of the rankings of the best airports in the world, Changi is preparing to welcome a fifth terminal.

Construction of the T5 is expected to begin in 2024 with commissioning expected in the mid-2030s. "

," Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said this summer, quoted by CNN.

This extension will be able to accommodate 50 million passengers per year, a considerable figure given the capacity of the four current terminals combined (82 million).

In 2019, the airport handled 68.3 million travellers.

The growth in the number of travelers in Southeast Asia justifies the expansion of the airport.

“

,” added Lee Hsien Loong.

The project, in the pipeline since 2013, had been put on hold for the past two years due to the health crisis.

It has been readjusted to the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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A city within the city

Jewel, an extension of Singapore-Changi Airport featuring a canopy of 3,000 trees and a 40-meter-high waterfall.

DAVID LEFRANC / Le Figaro Magazine

"

," explains operator Changi Airport Group on its website.

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Changi Airport, built in 1981, has become an attraction in its own right over the course of its expansion, for Singaporeans as well as for tourists or travelers in transit.

Terminal 3, inaugurated in 2008, has a 12-meter-high slide and a butterfly garden.

Opened in 2019, the Jewel Extension, the focal point of three of the four terminals, features a canopy of over 3,000 trees and a 40-meter-high waterfall.

There are also movie theaters and walking trails.

A real city within the city.