Changi Airport turns to driverless tractors to boost tarmac productivity
They are being used to transfer passenger bags between Terminal 1 and 4
[SINGAPORE] Changi Airport on Tuesday (Jan 20) announced that it has deployed its first fleet of fully autonomous tractors for tarmac operations following almost a year of trials.
The world’s fourth-busiest airport is now using two such tractors to transfer passenger bags between Terminal 1 and Terminal 4’s baggage handling areas in live operations, having completed more than 5,000 test trips since trials began in 2024.
“The autonomous baggage tractors can help us enhance worker safety, reduce worker work load and improve baggage handling productivity,” said Senior Minister of State for Transport Sun Xueling.
With manual baggage handling weighing on Singapore’s ageing workforce and severe weather becoming more frequent and disruptive, such tractors also ease manual labour strain and add all-weather resilience to Changi’s operations, she added.
Changi Airport Group (CAG) said that removing the need for human drivers also allows staff to focus on critical “last-mile operations”, while the launch “signals Singapore’s commitment to pioneering smart airport technologies”.
Future expansion of fleet
Each tractor has more than 10 sensors and cameras to enable the vehicles to navigate the “complex airside environment in all conditions”. The fully autonomous tractors are also monitored in a control centre during operations where a remote operator can intervene instantly, if needed, said CAG.
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Another six such autonomous tractors will be deployed to a different route between Terminal 2’s baggage handling area and aircraft stands later this year to support baggage operations under a collaboration between ground handler Sats and CAG. That will see a ratio of 75 manually driven tractors to one autonomous model.
The fleet will be expanded to 24 vehicles by 2027 and more autonomous tractors will be deployed to tow cargo and equipment, in addition to baggage.
The tractors are manufactured by Chinese autonomous driving company Uisee, whose autonomous shuttle buses, logistics vehicles and patrol cars are used at Hong Kong International Airport.
Changi Airport first trialled driverless baggage tractors in 2020 with vehicles from French airport ground support equipment manufacturer TLD and French autonomous vehicle company EasyMile.
Autonomous scaling for Terminal 5
The current project is co-funded by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and “aligns with Changi Airport’s broader innovation strategy”.
The group said it includes the integration of autonomous technology into tarmac operations, the use of artificial intelligence in initiatives such as “Aircraft 360”, as well as automation and robotics to increase manpower productivity.
“As Changi scales up to meet the operational requirements of Terminal 5 by the mid-2030s, such innovations will enable CAG and its partners to redesign and upgrade the job scopes of airside workers, to improve their productivity,” said CAG.
“Such productivity improvements and upgrading of airside roles are critical to grow the Singapore air hub to meet the future demands of air travel,” it added.
The Singapore aviation sector could see 30 per cent of the existing workforce – primarily in ground handling – undergoing job redesign in the next five years, according to CAAS’ Aviation Jobs Transformation report in July 2025.
With the launch of autonomous tractors, existing tractor drivers will be trained to operate the autonomous vehicles remotely. Currently, 10 are certified to do so.
The rollout will allow CAAS, CAG, Sats and unions to jointly implement the technology, update systems and processes, and redesign roles to help workers “transition to higher-value work”, said CAAS director of aviation industry, Angela Ng.
She added that lessons learnt in this deployment will be “useful for the sector’s wider technology adoption and job transformation efforts”.
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