SINGAPORE: Singapore's Budget Terminal will be closed on September 25 and demolished to make way for the construction of a new Terminal 4 at Changi Airport.Changi Airport Group (CAG) gave this confirmation after Channel NewsAsia first broke news of the impending closure on Wednesday.
In a statement, CAG said construction of Terminal 4 will begin in 2013 and is expected to be ready by 2017.
The new terminal will be a larger passenger building, with the capacity to handle 16 million passengers per annum.
It will be designed to enable efficient passenger processing and quick turnaround of aircraft, and will not have aerobridges.
Unlike the present Budget Terminal, Terminal 4 will also have a wide choice of retail and food and beverage offerings, as well as passenger amenities that will better serve the needs of travellers.
To facilitate the construction of Terminal 4, airlines currently operating in the Budget Terminal will move their operations to Terminal 2 and will start operations there from September 25 at 6am.
The affected airlines are Berjaya Air, Cebu Pacific, Firefly, South East Asian Airlines and Tiger Airways.
CAG said it has had discussions with the airlines operating at the Budget Terminal since late last year regarding the terminal's closure, and it will work with the respective airlines to ensure a smooth transition of their operations, and minimise inconvenience to passengers as far as possible.
It said more details on each airline's operations at Terminal 2 will be provided nearer the effective date.
CAG said the new terminal will help to sustain the long-term growth of Changi Airport.
It said the existing Budget Terminal handled more than 4.6 million passenger movements last year.
And Changi Airport, with a total capacity of more than 70 million passengers per annum, still has room to accommodate air traffic growth.
CAG said it believes in planning ahead to ensure there is capacity to handle further increase in traffic demand.
Over the past decade, passenger traffic at Changi Airport has increased at a compounded annual growth rate of 5.2 percent. In 2011, Changi handled a total of 46.5 million passenger movements, a year-on-year increase of 10.7 percent.
Singapore-based carriers - Singapore Airlines, SilkAir, Tiger Airways, Jetstar Asia and Scoot - have ordered new aircraft and foreign carriers have also expressed the desire to grow their air links with Singapore.
~News courtesy of Channel Newsasia~
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