Construction of T5 is scheduled to begin in the next two years, with the opening to take place in the mid-2030s.
Singapore, like much of the Southeast Asian tourism market, has been particularly hard hit by restrictions during the pandemic. On the other hand, this two-year hiatus actually provided the developers with an opportunity to take a step back and improve the details of the $10 billion project. For example, the design of the T5 will become “more modular and flexible.”
Set on a site of over 1,000 hectares, T5 will provide three additional runways and a tunnel system. There will also be more than 100 additional boarding gates. This should help manage the expected 135 million passengers a year in the 2030s. For comparison, in 2019, the airport’s passenger traffic amounted to 68 million passengers.
Today’s Changi Airport houses the world’s largest slide and the world’s tallest indoor waterfall. And the construction of Terminal 5 will also allow Singapore to compete on equal terms with China as one of the world’s leading financial centers.
As a reminder, Singapore lifted many of its COVID-19-related travel restrictions in April, including quarantines and tests on arrival for fully vaccinated tourists.