SINGAPORE – Passengers at the future Changi Airport Terminal 5 can expect to reach Terminal 2 in four minutes via the airport’s new underground link.
The automated people-mover system – similar to the existing Skytrain, which serves Terminals 1, 2 and 3 – will operate at a frequency of four to eight minutes, said Changi Airport Group (CAG) during a media visit on Dec 30 to the tunnels linking the future mega terminal and the existing T2.
Comprising two carriages, each train will be able to hold up to about 96 passengers, or 48 per carriage, with luggage.
Two trains – out of the airport operator’s future fleet of five – will be operational at any given time during operating hours, which CAG has not decided on.
The people mover linking T5 and T2 will help transit passengers and others get to the rest of Changi Airport via the Skytrain or shuttle buses. T2 is connected to Terminal 4, which is not served by the Skytrain, via shuttle buses.
CAG previously said that transit passengers at T5 can
connect to another flight in less than an hour
.
In comparison, the existing Skytrain – available to both travellers and members of the public – has one to three carriages, which carry up to 50 passengers each, and arrives every one to four minutes between 5am and 2am daily.
With T5 being as big as Terminals 1 to 4 combined, it will allow Changi Airport to serve 140 million passengers yearly – over 55 per cent more than its present capacity of 90 million – once it opens in the mid-2030s.
three underground tunnels
between T5 and T2 – spanning a total of 2.5km – were completed in October 2024. Two of the tunnels are for the people mover, while the third tunnel is for baggage.
The remaining stretches of tunnel at the ends near T5 and T2 – where an interchange for the baggage-handling system, as well as the depot and station for the people mover, will be situated – are still under construction.
