SINGAPORE: Changi Airport Terminal 2 fully reopened to passengers on Wednesday (Nov 1) after three and a half years of upgrading works.
The completion comes ahead of schedule, with expansion works originally slated to be done by next year.
The reopening comes at a time when passenger traffic for Changi Airport has rebounded to 90 per cent of pre-COVID levels, as of September 2023. Passenger volumes are expected to fully recover by next year.
The upgraded terminal, adding more than 21,000 sq m to the building, places Changi Airport in a better position to handle higher traffic. Sixteen airlines will operate at Terminal 2, with flights connecting to 40 cities.
With the terminal’s expansion project adding five million passengers per annum to Changi Airport’s capacity, the airport’s total handling capacity across all four terminals is now 90 million passengers per annum.
The expansion project started in January 2020, two months before Singapore closed its borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The terminal closed for upgrading works in May 2020. While operations were supposed to be suspended for 18 months, arrival operations in the south wing only resumed in May 2022 due to delays from the pandemic. Departure operations began in October 2022.
Speaking at the opening ceremony on Wednesday, Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean noted that the aviation sector has become a key pillar of Singapore’s economy.
“Pre-COVID, the Changi air hub and its adjacent industries contributed over 5 per cent of Singapore’s GDP and supported almost 200,000 jobs.”
He said that Singapore must be ready to “capture future growth in air travel”, noting that work had resumed on the construction of Terminal 5. “When ready in the mid-2030s, T5 will add approximately 50 million passengers to Changi’s annual capacity and this will strengthen Singapore’s position as a premier air hub.”