With a cascading waterfall, a vertical garden and megalithic
boulders, you could be forgiven for thinking you are in a soothing,
tropical paradise at Singapore Changi Airport’s reimagined Terminal 2.
It’s taken three and a half years of impressive engineering work, and
the uncertainty of working through the Covid years, to arrive at the
point where Terminal 2 is fully operational again and Changi Airport has
restored its four terminal operations – ahead of schedule.
T2’s completion has added five million passengers per year to
Changi’s capacity, bringing the airport’s total handling capacity to 90
million pax per year.
Speaking at the T2 expansion opening ceremony, Singapore senior
minister and coordinating minister for national security Teo Chee Hean,
said, “The T2 expansion project started in January 2020, two months
before Singapore closed its borders because of the Covid-19 pandemic. At
the time, no one knew how severe the pandemic would be, or how long it
would last.
“But Changi Airport Group (CAG) pushed ahead with the T2 expansion,
driven by the conviction that our Changi air hub would not only recover
from the pandemic, but emerge stronger.”
Dreamscape’s array of plants amid a landscaped backdrop.
T2’s design philosophy is guided by a nature-inspired theme to create tranquillity and relaxation.
At the heart of T2’s departure hall is a 14-metre-tall digital
display, dubbed The Wonderfall. Set amid a vertical garden, a majestic
waterfall cascades over megalithic boulders.
Inside the departure transit area, a brand-new landscaped garden –
Dreamscape - is brought alive by a ‘digital sky’ which changes its hues
depending on the time of day.
Special assistance lanes installed
Additional infrastructure at T2 includes new systems, and more retail
offerings. With a central common-use Fast and Seamless Travel (FAST)
zone, the number of automated check-in kiosks and bag drop machines has
almost doubled.
The immigration halls have been expanded to support additional
automated immigration lanes allowing more passengers to be served at any
time.
T2 is also the first terminal in Changi to have automated Special
Assistance Lanes for persons with disabilities and young children at
both arrival and departure immigration. A new early baggage storage
system has also been installed that is fully automated with the capacity
to handle up to 2,400 bags.
Tan Lye Teck, CAG’s programme director for the Terminal 2 Expansion
Project, said, “Changi Airport has always been pushing the boundaries of
airport service and innovation, while staying ahead of the latest
trends in digital as well as retail and dining offerings.
“With T2, we sought to enhance the passenger experience, bringing
together a modern terminal inspired by nature, with immersive digital
experiences, innovative technology, as well as transformative retail and
dining concepts that create a sense of place.”
Enjoy Li Bai’s moonlit reverie while waiting for Toni’s mechanical artistry to serve cocktails.
More retail and food & beverage stores have opened in both T2’s
public and transit areas. Visitors to the public areas of T2 will be
treated to a range of novel concepts, including South-east Asia’s first
Funko pop-up. Visitors will be able to pose with larger-than-life Funko
statues of their favourite characters, straight out of fiction.
Changi Airport’s first landside duplex cafe, Jones the Grocer, is
another addition to the departure hall. This well-known artisanal café
features a grab-and-go deli-style food counter at the ground level,
which is now open, as well as an upper-level bar and restaurant complete
with a show kitchen, set to open later this year.
In transit, travellers will be greeted by the newly opened Lotte Duty
Free Wines & Spirits, which showcases a first-in-airport robot
bartender Toni.
Above the bar, a 30-metre circumference LED ring plays scenes of the
moon reflected in a lake, a homage to Tang dynasty poet Li Bai’s famous
work, Drinking Alone Under the Moon.