Changi Airport Group (CAG) today announced that the new terminal four (T4) at Changi airport is scheduled to commence operations on 31 October 2017.
This follows the recent successful conclusion of major trials, with a small number of checks and reviews to be completed in the final phase of the preparations.
As reported, the new T4, hailed as a shopping and dining haven, will comprise more than 80 retail and food and beverage outlets featuring popular brands and unique experiential zones.
The unique integrated duty-free zone, covering liquor and tobacco (DFS Group) and cosmetics and perfumes (Shilla Duty Free) — both companies triumphed in the hotly contested core category tenders in 2014, which covers T4 — allows shoppers to pay for purchases at common counters.
To ensure a smooth transition of flight operations from the existing terminals, the operations of the nine T4 airlines—the AirAsia Group (of four airlines), Cathay Pacific Airways, Cebu Pacific Air, Korean Air, Spring Airlines and Vietnam Airlines—will be shifted to T4 over one week.
Cathay Pacific and Korean Air will move over on Tuesday 31 October 2017, Cebu Pacific Air and Spring Airlines on Thursday, November 2 and AirAsia Group and Vietnam Airlines on Tuesday, November 7.
The first arrival and departing flights at T4 will be operated by Cathay Pacific—CX659 from Hong Kong and CX650 to Hong Kong respectively.
Since October 2016, CAG has collaborated with its airport partners to prepare T4 for flight operations.
This began with table-top exercises to develop the standard operating procedures and later progressed to ground deployment exercises to familiarize staff with the new terminal and processes.
Volunteers from the airport community and members of the public were invited to role-play as passengers to test the critical airport systems and processes.
These included the Fast and Seamless Travel (FAST) self-service options at check-in, bag-drop, immigration and boarding, as well as security screening, baggage handling, flight information, ground transport, way-finding and transfer processes.
