Singapore to build $1.07b terminal for super jumbos

Singapore to build $1.07b terminal for super jumbos

SINGAPORE (AFP): The Singapore government announced yesterday
it would soon start work on a modern third airport terminal
capable of handling the 600-seat "super jumbos" of the 21st
century.

Changi airport's Terminal 3, estimated to cost S$1.5 billion
(US$1.07 billion), would start operating in 2004, Communication
Minister Mah Bow Tan said at an annual aviation industry
reception.

Detailed design work would start next year and the terminal's
construction would be carried out between 1999 and 2003.

Changi, whose two existing terminals are expected to reach
full capacity within a decade, is already rated in the aviation
industry as one of the world's best airports, and is Southeast
Asia's premier aviation hub.

Terminal 3 will be designed to handle 20 million passengers a
year, bringing the total capacity of Changi airport to 64
million.

"To maintain Changi's position as a premier hub airport, and
to enable us to continue to offer outstanding service to our
airport users, the government has decided to start work on
Terminal 3 before full capacity is reached in Terminals 1 and 2,"
Mah said.

The airport handled 23 million passengers last year, of whom
seven million came in as visitors to strategically located
Singapore, which has air links to 133 cities in 56 countries,
making it a convenient connecting point.

Mah said the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS),
which runs Changi, was also considering building an airport hotel
for crew and passengers as part of Terminal 3.

The new terminal would also be prepared for electronic
ticketing, and an efficient "people mover system" would link all
three terminals, creating a "total airport city" at Changi, Mah
said.

"Terminal 3 will be an exciting project worthy of Changi
airport's world-class reputation. It will have state-of-the-art
facilities and systems. These will include aircraft stands for
new generation aircraft, such as the 600-seater super jumbos," he
said.

Boeing Co. of the United States and its European rival Airbus
Industrie are now at work on competing super jumbos.

Boeing is expected to be first on the market early in the next
decade with a stretch version of its venerable B747, while Airbus
is at work on a totally new model, codenamed the "A3XX" project.
Both are looking at Asia as a primary market for the mammoth
aircraft.

The Asia-Pacific region is forecast to handle 400 million
passengers yearly or over half the world's total by 2010, from
122 million passengers or one-third of global traffic in 1993.

Spending on 16 current Asian airport projects now exceeds US$
50 billion, according to the Geneva-based Air Transport Action
Group, but even this may not be enough to meet the anticipated
travel and trade boom.

Aviation experts say the super jumbos will require new
aircraft handling facilities as well as larger and more efficient
terminals to handle heavier passenger and baggage traffic from
large-capacity carriers.

Fire and other emergency equipment would also need to be
improved to cope with the super jumbos, which experts regard as
massive fuel tankers capable of wreaking great havoc in a
disaster.

Better road and rail links between Asian airports and cities
also need to be built.

Singapore announced last week that it was extending its subway
system all the way to Changi. The line is expected to be
operational in five years.