5 more airlines to join Cathay Pacific at Changi's T4

Singapore

FIVE more airlines will operate from Changi Airport's Terminal 4, which is scheduled to open in the second half of 2017, airport operator Changi Airport Group (CAG) said on Thursday.

Korean Air, Vietnam Airlines, and the AirAsia Group - AirAsia Berhad, Indonesia AirAsia and Thai AirAsia - will join Cathay Pacific in moving their operations from existing terminals to T4, the construction of which is 70 per cent complete, said CAG.

Cathay Pacific announced its move to T4 in May 2014.

The six airlines operate about 800 flights per week and collectively served seven million passengers last year.

T4 will be able to handle 16 million passengers; CAG expects additional airlines to operate from T4, which sits on the site of the now-demolished Budget Terminal.

The terminal will be Changi Airport's first to use facial recognition technology to verify identity.

Poh Li San, CAG's vice-president of the T4 Programme Management Office, said: "We have been working closely with our partners in IT and security agencies to look at how we can bring a robust system that ... meets security requirements before we roll it out in T4."

The technology, which will eliminate the need for manual checks by staff, will supplement T4's "fast and seamless travel" (FAST) initiatives, which are aimed at making the passenger experience more efficient.

The terminal's FAST features include self-service check-in kiosks, automated baggage drop and self-boarding.

Operational trials of these systems will begin in 2016 and are expected to run for a full year, Ms Poh said.

In addition to such productivity features, the terminal will cater to the requirements of different airlines.

Yam Kum Weng, CAG's executive vice-president of air hub development, said the Group's understanding of airlines and passengers played into the development of the terminal:

"In operating the current terminals, we have been in close engagement with full-service airlines and low-cost carriers to understand their needs," he said, adding that T4 would not cater solely to budget carriers.

Ms Poh said that while T4 will have more narrow-body parking bays, it will also have a number of wide-body bays for the full-service carriers that will operate from there.

The aircraft parking area will be able to hold 17 narrow-body and nine wide-body aircraft.

She described the design of the terminal as a "win-win-win approach" for passengers, airlines and the airport itself.

Tony Fernandes, chief executive of the AirAsia Group, said T4 met several of AirAsia's objectives in terms of Changi's offered package and its volume capacity; he plans to double the number of passengers on the Group's three airlines at the airport to four million.

He said the terminal's FAST initiatives will enable his company to save up to 40 per cent of current costs.

Mr Fernandes declined to comment on the cost of operating his company's airlines in the new terminal, but Mr Yam confirmed that they were similar to the fees levied at Terminals 1, 2 and 3.

Key value propositions for the airlines include room for volume growth and the investment in technology, which will reduce costs in manpower, Mr Yam said.

As for negative comments made about the terminal's distance from the rest of the airport (made by budget airline Scoot's chief executive last August), Mr Yam said the complimentary bus shuttles connecting T4 to the remaining terminals will run at same frequency as the Skytrain.

"There is a perceived lack of connectivity, which I think we have adequately addressed through use of shuttles," he said.