Airlines ready for take-off at Changi Airport Terminal

Four more airlines will begin their flight operations at Singapore Changi Airport’s new Terminal 3 on Wednesday, 26 March 2008. China Eastern Airlines, Jet Airways, Qatar Airways and United Airlines will join Singapore Airlines and shift their operations from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3. Singapore Airlines has been operating at Terminal 3 since the terminal begins operations on 9 January 2008.

Among the four airlines, China Eastern Airline’s flight will be the first to arrive and depart from Terminal 3. Flight MU545 from Shanghai will arrive at Terminal 3 at 2050 hours on Tuesday, 25 March 2008. The same aircraft will depart for Shanghai at 0055 hours on 26 March 2008.

For the other three airlines, United Airlines will handle its first arrival flight from Atlanta (via Chicago and Hong Kong) at 2325 hours on Tuesday, 25 March 2008, while its first departure flight will take off at 0650 hours on 26 March 2008. Jet Airways will handle its first arrival flight from Mumbai at 0735 hours and first departure flight to Chennai at 0920 hours. Qatar Airways will see its arrival flight from Jakarta at 0145 hours and first departure flight to Doha at 0245 hours.

Since February 2008, the four airlines have undergone integrated airport system trials at Terminal 3 involving passenger check-in, baggage handling, staff familiarisation and live commercial trial flights to test the actual

passenger departure and arrival processes. The objective of these trials is to ensure that the airlines establish, integrate and test their systems and procedures in a live-like environment ahead of their shift to Terminal 3. The trials also provide opportunities for the airlines’ staff to familiarise themselves with the new

terminal.

CAAS has put in place measures to communicate the commencement of operations by these four airlines at Terminal 3. These include the updating of airport directories and signs within the terminal buildings as well as dissemination of circulars and vehicle decals to ground transport service providers such as

coach and taxi drivers to generate awareness.

The four airlines operate a total of 148 weekly flights from Singapore to 12 cities viz. Shanghai, Kunming, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Doha, Jakarta, Atlanta, Chicago, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Washington DC, bringing a total of more than 900 weekly scheduled flights at Terminal 3.

Source: Transportweekly