Opening Address by Mr Chee Hong Tat, Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Finance, at the Annual Airport Celebration 2025

Mr Tan Gee Paw, Chairman, CAG

Mr Yam Kum Weng, CEO, CAG

Friends and colleagues from the Changi Airport Community, 

1.     Good evening. Thank you for inviting me to join you for the Annual Airport Celebration. This is an event that I look forward to attending each year, where we gather to recognise our aviation community and workers, and their contributions towards Changi’s growth and success.

Full Throttle Ahead

2.     2024 was a good year for air travel. Changi Airport saw passenger traffic grow by 15% from 2023 to 67.7 million passenger movements, bringing us almost on par with pre-COVID levels. We welcomed eight new passenger airlines to Changi and added 11 new cities to our network. This is a testament to Changi’s attractiveness to travellers from around the world.

3.     We also had a good start to the year and saw strong performance in January, where passenger volume exceeded 6.16 million. This is a 13% increase from January last year.  We could only have achieved this smoothly and safely due to the hard work and commitment by all of you here. Thank you!

4.     Looking ahead, we are optimistic. The Asia Pacific region is expected to see the strongest growth in air travel worldwide. We are making investments to ensure that Changi remains well-positioned to capture this growth. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has just announced a $5b top-up to the Changi Airport Development Fund to support the expansion of Changi Airport, including the construction of Terminal 5 (T5) which will begin in a few months. When completed, Changi Airport will be home to one of the world’s largest mega terminals.

5.     Changi Airport Group has also announced plans to improve existing infrastructure, such as enhancing check-in services and baggage handling, to ensure that we continue to deliver a smooth passenger and airline experience.

6.     But our air hub would not succeed without our people.  All of you are critical to the continued success of our air hub and you are the ones who make the Exceptional Moments and Magical Stories for our passengers possible. We must and will continue to invest in our people. And tonight, I want to talk about three things that will help us to remain well-prepared for the future.

Changi: A good place to work

7.     First, we will continue to make Changi a good place to work. The well-being of our workers is paramount.

8.     We will continue to harness technology to create a more comfortable working environment for our aviation workforce. For example, SATS will continue to adopt assistive equipment to minimise the manual and repetitive loading and unloading of baggage and cargo. Meanwhile CAG is developing and trialling robotics for baggage handling, as well as driving the use of autonomous vehicles to automate point to point towing at the airside. 

9.     CAG is also making investments to improve the airside workplace environment for our workers. For instance, it will enhance and expand rest areas at the airside, such that all workers will be within a 10-minute walk or just a short drive from an air-conditioned staff lounge or cafe.

10.    With that, our airside workers can look forward to a 2^nd airside café next year, which will offer expanded hot food options. Within the baggage handling areas, CAG will revamp the ‘Rest & Dine’ spaces in the baggage areas by the end of this year, allowing workers to rest in place, and not have to travel far to find an area to relax and have a snack or drink during their breaks.

11.    CAG will also embark on an enhancement programme for all airside restrooms over the next three years, including improving their lighting and natural ventilation, and increasing the number of toilets where possible.

12.    As we experience increasingly inclement weather and the impact of climate change, we must keep pace with our mitigation measures. To deal with heat stress, apart from increasing the number of fans at our baggage handling areas, CAG will continue to invest efforts in trialling new and innovative ways to lower ambient temperature at the baggage area.

13.    To improve the day-to-day experience for workers, CAG will also repurpose lightning shelters at the airside, from basic shelters without seating or ventilation, to ‘pit stops’, with seating and fans to provide better protection from the sun and the rain and offer our workers greater comfort and convenience.

14.    These are improvements that you will continue to see in the months ahead, and that I hope will make Changi an even better place for everyone to work in.

Changi: A strong community that works together

15.   Second, Changi must continue to be a strong community that works together. Our competitive advantage stems from the close tripartite relationship between Government, employers, and unions, united by a clear purpose and vision to make the air hub a success.

16.   For example, we encourage companies to support their workers by tapping on available grants by the government and NTUC to trial and adopt technology and automation solutions, including those enabled through NTUC’s Company Training Committees. At the recent Budget, PM announced that the government will add $200m to the CTC. I hope that more companies will utilise this platform to drive a greater adoption of technology, digitalisation and automation, while supporting workers in uplifting their jobs.

17.    CAAS, industry and unions will also continue to work together to ensure our workers are paid a fair and competitive wages. Discussions are guided through regular wage benchmarking exercises and constructive negotiations between unions and employers. As a sector that is highly skills-based, and as we adopt more technology, we must also ensure career and wage progression for our workers, so that they can acquire skills, experience, and contribute meaningfully to the success of our companies.

18.    We must continue to work closely together as a OneAviation team, to put us in good stead for the years ahead.

Changi: Where the ‘Changi Spirit’ Soars

19.    Third, Changi must be a place where the “Changi Spirit” soars. Every member of the OneAviation community – from our customer service agents and cabin crew, our baggage handlers and ramp operators, among others – plays a critical role in supporting Changi’s operations. Each of you embodies the Changi spirit, which is distinct. This is the “X” factor that has allowed Changi to differentiate itself from others around the world.

20.    Tonight’s Annual Airport Celebration is a special one – it is the first year with award categories to recognise our airside workers, who work tirelessly to facilitate the flow of passengers, baggage and cargo smoothly, efficiently and safely, rain or shine. It is a timely recognition to acknowledge the work and contributions of our airport workers.

21.    An individual who has demonstrated exemplary behaviour at the airside is Rais, an Engineering Supervisor at SIA Engineering Company. Rais was part of the team that responded to the emergency landing of an Air China aircraft which encountered smoke onboard last year. Although it was the first time that Rais was involved in live operations where evacuation slides were activated on a runway in Changi, he had the foresight to mobilise additional men and equipment to prepare for the removal of these slides, which accelerated recovery operations greatly. While the incident stretched beyond his shift hours, Rais stayed behind to see to the completion of the recovery efforts. For this, I am happy  to share that Rais is awarded the ‘Outstanding Airside Staff of the Year’ award.

22.    Another group of individuals who demonstrated creativity, teamwork and commitment to excellence are customer service officer Robert, and operations manager Camilo, from SmarteCarte. Last year, they were approached by a passenger at Jewel Baggage Storage, who was anxiously looking for ways to pack his full-sized mountain bike for check-in, as the bike could not be disassembled. There was no box available to fit such a large bike. The team quickly improvised and used several spare boxes and the baggage wrapping machine to assemble a custom box. Truly thinking ‘out of the box’! To quote the delighted passenger’s thank you letter, they made the “impossible seem almost easy”. The team is today awarded the ‘Outstanding Service Team of the Year’ award.

Conclusion

23.    This year’s theme – “Exceptional Moments, Magical Stories” describes the impact that each and everyone in the OneAviation community has on our passengers. I would like to offer my congratulations to all the award winners and express my deepest appreciation to the entire OneAviation community for continuing to make Changi Airport a place that all Singaporeans are proud of. Thank you, and enjoy your night ahead.