Changi Airport Group Update: New Terminal

Transcript

Poh Lin San:Well, so far the whole migration of airlines from the other terminals to Terminal 4 has been very smooth. We started the first tranche of airlines moving on the 31st of October, a week ago. So we started off with Cathay Pacific as well as Korean Air. And today we completed the 3rd tranche of airlines with AirAsia Group Airlines and Vietnam Air. So, so far we are very happy that all the operations has gone on very smoothly. We didn't see any hiccups at all. So very well done to the operations team and the airlines team that have worked very hard for this migration. I think first and foremost, the passengers have good comments about using this self-service technology and equipment to facilitate them in the various touchpoints. They can see that this Terminal 4 is a very futuristic terminal, and they understand that this is all in the attempt to actually improve passenger experience, because with all the self-service kiosks available, there's hardly any need to queue anymore for passengers, and they find the whole process of transaction very straightforward, very user-friendly. And even the bag tags, for example, are designed very differently, that it's easy for passengers to use by themselves. So, so far we have got hardly any issues with all the automated channels, and we're just going to continue to monitor this for the next couple of weeks to make sure that everything is running fine. Actually, almost everything in T4 is new compared to T1, T2, and T3. Mainly because we don't build a terminal every other year. Every 10 or 15 years, we build a new terminal, and we see this as the opportune time for us to really up the game and to push boundaries, try out new concepts, new technology in Changi to enhance the passenger experience as well as to improve the operational efficiency and productivity for our airline partners and our airport stakeholders. So we start off with course, having FAST, that's a game changer for us because that's fundamentally gonna change the whole process of how passengers move in the terminal, really going through from point to point in a very seamless and hassle-free fashion. And of course, with security screening in T4, that's centralized screening, but with that, we also improved the whole experience in the centralized security zone with A very gigantic immersive screen at the back to provide them some form of entertainment while they go through the screening. And of course, we have invested in the world's— I guess we are the world's first operator, first users of these CTX-ray machines. These CTX-ray machines and also the automated tray return systems will definitely help to improve the whole experience. Passengers do not need to take out their laptops and their smart devices anymore from the bags. They can just leave it in and then send the entire bags through for their checks. So these are some of the touchpoints that we have really made different improvements in T4. And of course, once they enter into the transit area, then a whole new world awaits them with many different features. From shopping to the entire heritage zone, to art pieces and yeah, lots of interesting things for passengers to enjoy in the terminal. Along with the procurement of our automated check-in kiosks and also the automated bag drops for T4, we also procured some units of this new systems and equipment to be installed in Terminal 1. Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. So Terminal 1 has already completed the installation process, whereas we are in the process of adding them into Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. So that will also help the current— the existing airlines in these 2 terminals, or rather these 3 terminals, to also start using automated processes for their check-in and bag drops. Immigration and boarding, that's the next step. And for immigration, we're working closely with our immigration authorities. So that one is something that's still in the plans, and we are looking at a couple of years probably to have this installed and rolled out in the other terminals. Actually, Terminal 4 is a testbed for all these new technologies which we plan to implement in Terminal 5. But at the same time, we also would like to take some time to learn from the operations in Terminal 4 to see if there's anything else that we can actually improve further or adapt for the implementation in Terminal 5. So certainly with all these self-service processes, this will be the way to go for Terminal 5, and we are also trying out other areas of innovations. For example, even in housekeeping, we've got cleaning robots in Terminal 4 that's helping the housekeeping team, keep them lean and keep them effective. So technologies like this, we can definitely use them in Terminal 5. Yeah, actually those are still happening at the back of house. In Terminal 4, we've also invested in the most state-of-the-art, what we call the baggage handling system. So this is a fully automated baggage handling system with individual carriage systems. So that will help to reduce mishandling for baggage because every bag will be placed on an individual tray. So that has got an RFID tag on it, and that will help to reduce mishandling, as well as in terms of the manpower deployment, it's basically fully automated. Even the early baggage storage system is fully automated as well. So over there at the back of the house, we are looking at lots of manpower savings with all this new technology. Well, I think in terms of the way that the parking stands are laid out, essentially it's a linear organization of the parking bays. So that helps a lot in terms of the ground handlers pushing out their turnaround equipment and their manpower. So that will help quite a fair bit in terms of resource deployment and also indirectly onto the turnaround times for the airlines. Terminal 4 has been planned for 60 million passengers per annum in capacity, and right now with the shift of the 6 airlines to T4 for the opening phase. That is only about 50% of the capacity that's being used, so we keep at least 50% of capacity for their own organic growth. And next year, we will bring in a few more airlines to add on to the airline mix in T4. Well, it'll be incremental because the big airlines are mainly now moved into T4. So with more new airlines joining Changi, T4 will be a good natural terminal for them to be placed at. And also some of the airlines which we may need to shift from Terminals 1, 2, 3, kind of to rebalance the load periodically, to shift them into Terminal 4. In Terminal 4, the key focus is really on the regional airlines. That's really growing very quickly, and that's also why we have mostly selected narrow-body operators to move into Terminal 4. because we see this new terminal having that capacity for them to grow in this fast-growing regional environment. So our focus will be mainly on airlines that are operating narrow-body aircraft. We have Cathay, Korean Air, and also 2 Cebu Pacific flights that are wide-body. So these 3 airlines are utilising the 4 narrow— wide-body bays in a very efficient way, and we have also worked out the deconfliction in their schedule. So actually we have utilised the 4 wide-body bays pretty well. Thank you.

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