Singapore’s Changi airport to reopen terminals as travel recovers faster than expected

Changi Airport in Singapore will reopen two of its terminals closed as a result of Covid-19 as travel springs back faster than expected.

Terminal 4 will reopen in September while departure operations in the southern wing of Terminal 2 will restart from October, Changi Airport Group said in a statement on Friday. The moves will add operating capacity, allowing the airport to cope better with the influx of passengers as the northern hemisphere winter seasons gets under way.

Singapore is welcoming travellers back after it removed all quarantine and testing rules for fully-vaccinated people in early April. National flag carrier Singapore Airlines is aiming to be operating at 67 per cent of its pre-Covid capacity by September.

Changi Airport partially reopened Terminal 2, one of the two halls that were closed during the pandemic, in late May to meet demand. While Terminals 1 and 3 have been operating during Covid-19, Terminals 2 and 4 have been shut.

For the first week of June, passenger traffic at Changi Airport reached 48 per cent of pre-Covid levels and as a result, more airlines have asked to launch flights in the second half, according to Friday’s statement.

Singapore Transport Minister S Iswaran said last month that passenger traffic at Changi Airport is already near 50 per cent of what it was before the pandemic, a target the government earlier said it had only expected to reach later in 2022. Singapore has also resumed plans for construction of a fifth terminal, with building work expected to start in two to three years.