Changi’s not planning to give it’s crown away anytime soon.
Just recently, we were greeted with the surprising but welcomed news of our partnership with Disney – to keep Singapore attractive for tourists. Now, our aviation authority is doing the same thing, to transform the city-state’s aviation sector.
This move comes as other countries – including those in the region – are expanding their airports in a bid to become leading air hubs with their airlines also growing aggressively. The aviation’s new blueprint just goes to show that Singapore certainly isn’t one to rest on her laurels even though Changi is already crowned the world’s best airport.
The roadmap charting the future of our aviation sector revealed plans to create better jobs, boost productivity and improve Changi Airport’s overall competitiveness. While these plans will only come to fruition in 2025, we were preempted that a ‘business-as-usual’ approach while transforming the sector isn’t feasible.
A “Smarter” Changi Airport
Plans are underway to make Changi Airport “smarter”, by leveraging on innovative solutions and state-of-the-art technology to boost productivity. For starters, the aviation authorities has issued a tender to pilot a Smart Tower for air traffic operations – which brings the controllers a digitised real-time view – improving surveillance and information.
Of course, these plans won’t be viable unless current employees are constantly keeping up with the changing times. To ensure that employees are equipped with the necessary skills, there’ll be a professional conversion programme (PCP) to help workers ease into the air transport sector. Our air hub will be vastly different – with 8000 new jobs being created to cater to the transformation.
For those looking to be a part of the growing aviation industry, there’s a new air transport undergraduate degree programme in the works. In partnership with a local university, the authority sees this as a step in the right direction to meet the sector’s growing manpower needs.
With the addition of the upcoming Changi Crown Jewel and Terminal 4 & 5, it’s a major milestone for our airport. Better take in the beauty of how simple Changi Airport is today, because it’s going to look nowhere near in the future.
