Changi Airport's T5 to create jobs, business opportunities for Singaporeans, says PM Wong at groundbreaking
SINGAPORE: Changi Airport's Terminal 5 (T5) is a "significant engineering undertaking" that will benefit both local businesses and jobseekers, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong during the groundbreaking ceremony of the mega project on Wednesday (May 14).
T5 will bring many more opportunities for Singaporeans, said Mr Wong, who is also Finance Minister.
The construction of the terminal itself will be "significant' and "complex", he said in a speech at the ceremony, which is held at the Changi East Site where T5 will be built.
"Our local businesses will have the opportunity to participate in this process, some already are involved in some of the ongoing work," he said.
The terminal - built on a plot of land about 20 per cent bigger than Toa Payoh - will have three different parts connected by automated people movers akin to the existing sky trains, while its location could pave the way for air-sea transfers via Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.
The Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group will consolidate SIA and Scoot operations under one roof at T5 for better 'operational synergies', the group said separately on Wednesday.
The terminal will also be able to withstand extreme weather and climate change effects, and will be designed to deploy technology at scale.
Mr Wong said that when T5 is operational, there will also be more demand for services and workers, both in the airport and in other industries that will grow together with it.
'This will provide more quality jobs for Singaporeans, requiring new skillsets in areas like data science, robotics, and sustainability,' he added.
Mr Wong said that over the longer term, air travel is on a growth trajectory, and the bulk of the growth will take place in the Asia-Pacific.
He noted that Changi currently has around 170 city links, and the number is growing.
Mr Wong added that T5 will support the goal of reaching more than 200 city links by the mid-2030s.
When the first phase of the T5 project is completed in the mid-2030s, the terminal will be able to handle about 50 million passengers annually.
Changi Airport's existing four terminals now have a 90 million passenger capacity, and they handled 68.4 million passengers in the past financial year.
The opening of T5 will expand Changi Airport's capacity by over 50 per cent to 140 million, and place it among the world's mega airports, defined as those that handle more than 100 million passengers a year.
Timeline of Terminal 5
The mega project was first announced in 2013 by then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National Day Rally speech.
Land preparation works for Changi East - which the terminal will be on - and the planning for T5 began in 2014, including the functional design studies and concept development for the terminal.
There was a two-year pause to the T5 project in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its design was reviewed to meet the needs of post-pandemic travel.
In 2022, work on the T5 project resumed, with its design altered to be more modular, resilient and sustainable.
On May 14, 2025, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong broke ground for T5, with works on the terminal to start thereafter. Construction is projected to span over a decade, with the first phase opening in the mid-2030s.
WHAT T5 WILL LOOK LIKE
Built on a plot almost as big as the land area of the existing airport, the first phase of T5 will consist of three different parts, T5A, T5B and T5C.
T5A will be where facilities such as the immigration halls, baggage claim halls and boarding gates will be.
Connected to this will be T5B, which will be where more boarding gates will be located.
In total, T5A and T5B will have 49 contact stands, or parking areas for aircraft that connect to the boarding gates.
T5C will have more boarding gates, but it will be in a separate building from T5A and T5B. This is to allow for a taxiway between the buildings, so planes can taxi to gates on the opposite side of T5 without having to make a detour.
T5C will have 22 contact stands, about the same number as Terminal 4.
The different parts of T5 will be connected via a train system dubbed the 'automated people mover system'. The trains will primarily travel above ground, but with T5C being in a separate building from the other T5 parts, the train will go underground under the taxiway when travelling to T5C.
The distance between T5A and T5C is about 2km.
The distance that passengers have to walk, however, will still be comparable to what they would cover in the current terminals, given the network of travellators and trains.
Most passengers arriving in Singapore will be able to hop onto a taxi or MRT within 30 minutes after leaving their aircraft, said CAG chief executive officer Yam Kum Weng during his speech at the groundbreaking ceremony.
He added that transfer passengers in T5 can connect to another flight in under an hour, faster than the current transfer times.
There will be a separate train service from Terminal 5 to Terminal 2 via a 2.5km underground link between the terminals, which began construction in 2024.
The roof of T5 will feature overlapping 'roof leaves' with varying heights, which will create 'a variety of spaces that are more human scale', said CAG in material provided to the media.
The baggage claim hall will feature 'vertical gardens', while the departure pick-up point will feature a roof that allows natural light to filter through.
'Combined with natural light and landscaping at appropriate spaces, the terminal will have the familiar cosy, yet uplifting feel that Changi is known for,' said CAG.
The Changi East development that T5 is located in will also feature the future Changi East Urban District, which will serve as a 'vibrant business and lifestyle destination' and the future Changi East Industrial Zone, said CAG.
The entire Changi East development, which includes T5, is expected to run into 'tens of billions', it was reported in 2018.
The Changi Airport Development Fund will be topped up by S$5 billion to support this.
AIR-SEA LINK, CLIMATE RESILIENCE, HARNESSING TECHNOLOGY
T5's proximity to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal also allows for the possibility of facilitating seamless air-sea transfers to neighbouring destinations, said CAG.
One airport that currently has air-sea transfers is Hong Kong International Airport, which has a SkyPier Terminal that facilitates direct flight-to-ferry connections
New roads will also be built to connect T5 to Tanah Merah Coast Road, East Coast Parkway and the Pan Island Expressway.
T5 will also be connected to the rest of Singapore through a ground transportation centre at the terminal where passengers can access train, bus, taxi and other transportation services.
There are plans for the Thomson-East Coast Line and the future Cross Island Line to be connected to T5.
The terminal will also be designed to withstand extreme weather and climate change effects, with an airfield that is 5.5m above sea level, and taxiways that are sloped to allow rainwater to drain off.
The terminal will also be designed to deploy automation at scale, with technology currently being trialled at the existing terminals.
For instance, video analytics and artificial intelligence used to actively track flight activity can predict potential delays for ground handlers to better deploy resources at the terminal.
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This meant that the teams had to be separate legal entities from their national or state FAs to ensure proper governance, financial transparency, and professional management. In Malaysia, state governments had previously served as the main financiers for football teams, with annual budgets directly dependent on state allocations. Shahril of Selangor FC said it is not easy to get sponsors for clubs in Malaysia as the return on investment is relatively low, unlike for major clubs in Europe that have a global fan base. Much of the revenue of the world's major clubs are from broadcasting rights, not from match ticket sales, he said. Football observers noted the chicken-and-egg situation when it comes to drawing sponsors and developing other revenue streams: A product has to be good for sponsors to be willing to come on board, but it is uncertain if the MSL has reached the standard. 'If you have a good product, the supporters and sponsors will come in. But right now, there is nothing in it for them,' said Zulakbal Abd Karim, a sports science and coaching lecturer at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris in Malaysia. Malaysia's clubs lack support from local fans, agreed sports analyst Pekan Ramli. Only 56,000 fans turned up for this year's Malaysia Cup final match between JDT and Sri Pahang at the 90,000-capacity Bukit Jalil Stadium, he pointed out. The lack of competition in the MFL does not help, Pekan said. JDT has won the league title for the past 11 years, and the recent increase of the cap on foreign players could further widen the gap between clubs. 'If some teams can have 15 imports but others can only afford two or three, is there fair play in that?' he questioned. 'We cannot just prioritise certain teams and leave others behind … we have to understand that the resources of each club are different.' IS STATE FUNDING NEEDED? Some analysts also believe federal and state government funding is still needed to help football clubs survive. Citing the legacy of government backing in Malaysia's football ecosystem, football critic Rizal Hashim suggested ownership of clubs could be split between state governments and the private sector so that each party would have a stake in the clubs' performance and success. 'Our ecosystem was never club-based but state-based. The state government must have a stake in the FC business model entity via the state FAs. Teams like Perak, Kedah and Perlis suffered and have withdrawn because state governments don't see the need to bail them out,' he said. In Perak FC's case, Perak Chief Minister Saarani Mohamad said on Apr 27 that the state government was unable to resolve the club's financial crisis. The cost of financing professional football clubs in Malaysia had become "too expensive" for state governments to bear, Saarani said. Perak's displaced players and staff are now left to chart their next steps. Shivan is keeping his footballing dream alive and weighing offers from other clubs. Football is a livelihood for many players, and he hopes the fraternity will come together to tackle the issues in Malaysian football. Shivan, who is taking up a part-time degree course in business administration, also has this piece of advice for youths hoping to carve out a career in the sport: Pursue your footballing ambitions, but not at the expense of your studies.
