It was more than a decade ago when building a new Terminal 5 at Singapore's Changi Airport was first announced. As Asian aviation soared, momentum for the project grew, although that came to a crashing halt when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, but some good news has now emerged. Changi T5 is now GO! In his Singapore National Day Rally speech in August last year, then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said building T5 is integral to the nation's long-term development plans for aviation and would "show the world what sort of place Singapore is.
" He outlined the scope of the T5 project by adding: "We are building one more new Changi Airport: it's huge." Time marches on, and now Singapore has a new Prime Minister, Lawrence Wong, who took office on May 15, 2024. It seems the Changi Airport T5 project has sprung back to life as the prime minister spoke about it at the 40th Anniversary Dinner of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) last Friday, September 6, 2024.
According to the Straits Times , the PM announced at the dinner that Changi Airport Terminal 5 (T5) construction will commence in the first half of 2025. In a wide-ranging speech, Wong highlighted the need for Singapore to maintain its competitive edge amid increasing regional competition and noted the rapid expansion of airline fleets and networks, which threatens to bypass Changi Airport for direct routes. He added: "Some have announced plans for mega airports that can handle more than 100 million passengers a yea.