How Changi Airport Became the World’s Best: A Complete Analysis
Airports, for most of us, are necessary evils.
Long security queues, bland terminals, and overpriced snacks are what usually come to mind.
But imagine stepping off a tiring flight and walking straight into a butterfly garden, complete with a cascading indoor waterfall. Or picture yourself sliding down a four-storey tube slide inside the terminal. Consider an airport where you can spend your layover in a rooftop swimming pool and jacuzzi, open to anyone with a few spare hours.
This isn’t a theme park.
It isn’t science fiction.
It’s a real place — and it’s consistently crowned the best airport in the world.
Welcome to Singapore Changi Airport, where the future of travel feels beautifully alive and where even a layover becomes an attraction.
A Mega-Airport in a Tiny Nation
To understand how astonishing Changi really is, start with its sheer scale.
In 2024 alone, Changi handled around 68 million passengers — nearly 12 times Singapore’s population. This places it among the top 15 busiest airports on the planet. Before the pandemic, it regularly ranked in the top seven for international traffic.
More than 100 airlines connect Singapore to 170+ cities across every major region — Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa, and the Americas. Under normal circumstances, a plane takes off or lands every 80 seconds at Changi.
But it’s not just the traffic.
Changi is an economic powerhouse.
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| Photo : skytraxratings.com |
The airport contributes over USD 13 billion to Singapore’s economy each year and supports around 119,000 jobs. For a small city-state, this is monumental. No surprise that Singapore’s prime minister once described Changi as a lifeline of national prosperity.
And it’s also one of the world’s most decorated airports — over 680 awards, including multiple “World’s Best Airport” titles. It reclaimed that title in 2023 and again in 2025, after briefly losing the crown to a rival.
The timing matters.
Air travel has surged back post-pandemic. Changi’s traffic in 2024 has almost fully rebounded to pre-2020 levels. And Singapore is already preparing for the next leap — the massive Terminal 5, expected in the 2030s, which will amplify capacity by more than 50%.
Right now, cranes, trucks, and engineers are busy shaping Changi into a true airport city of the future.
.png "20-year growth projections by region for the aviation industry (IATA baseline 2023-2043).")
The Bold Gamble That Built a World-Class Airport
To see how Changi became what it is, we must rewind to the 1970s — a time when Singapore was newly independent and rapidly growing.
.png "A stark comparison of passenger traffic at Paya Lebar Airport (Singapore's former international airport) over a five-year period in the 1970s.")
Back then, all international flights used Paya Lebar Airport, a 1955-era, single-runway facility near the city. It was handling 4 million passengers a year by 1975 — far beyond what it was built for. Singapore had already poured SGD 800 million into plans for expansion, including river reclamation and relocating thousands of families.
.webp "In 1975, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew made a stunning decision to invest 800 million dollars — and announced an entirely new airport at Changi,")
In 1975, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew made a stunning decision.
He scrapped the expansion plan — effectively writing off those 800 million dollars — and announced an entirely new airport at Changi, a remote site of swamps and a British military air base.
The new airport would require enormous land reclamation, relocating villages and graves, demolishing old structures, and investing another SGD 1.5 billion. Critics called it reckless.
Lee Kuan Yew called it the smartest investment Singapore ever made.
Why gamble so big?
Two reasons:
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Paya Lebar had no room to grow.
It was boxed in by city development. One extra runway was possible — but after that, there was nowhere to expand without bulldozing entire neighbourhoods. -
Changi offered freedom — and the sea.
With the ocean beside it, planes could take off and land over water, reducing noise and pollution. And if more space was needed, Singapore could keep reclaiming land outward.
For a leader obsessed with long-term strategy, Changi was a blank canvas.
He even remarked that shifting the airport offshore would free downtown from height limits imposed by flight paths.
An often-told anecdote says Lee’s conviction grew during a flight over Boston Logan Airport, where runways had been built on reclaimed land stretching into the harbour.
%20(1).webp "Lee formed a high-level “Three Wise Men” committee to see if a new airport could be completed quickly") |
| Photo : National Archives Of Singapore |
Soon after, Lee formed a high-level “Three Wise Men” committee to see if a new airport could be completed quickly. The answer: yes — within six years.
He then tasked his trusted minister, Sim Kee Boon, to execute the project.
Building Changi: A National Mission
Construction turned into a full-scale nation-building sprint.
Engineers extended an old military runway from 2 km to 4 km for jumbo jets. Millions of cubic meters of sand were dredged to form space for a second runway and huge terminals. 11,000 families were resettled from the Paya Lebar area.
Lee Kuan Yew involved himself closely.
He demanded Changi be a garden airport, reflecting Singapore’s identity as a “Garden City”. Thousands of trees were planted. He even asked engineers to tether yellow balloons to bulldozers so he could track progress from a helicopter.
This was a matter of national pride.
And remarkably, they delivered.
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| Photo : Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore Collection, Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore |
The first arrival, Singapore Airlines SQ101 from Kuala Lumpur, was greeted with lion dancers and celebration. A quarter million Singaporeans visited the airport before its opening just to see it.
At launch, Changi had one terminal and a new runway built for 10 million passengers a year — far more than needed at the time. It was the largest airport in Asia when it opened, and many called it overbuilt.
But history proved otherwise.
This “overbuilt” airport became the foundation for decades of growth — Terminal 2 in 1990, Terminal 3 in 2008, Terminal 4 in 2017, and plans for T5 underway.
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| Photo : Courtesy of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. |
Singapore even placed Changi Airport on its $20 currency note — the ultimate sign of national pride.
But this was only the first half of the story.
The Twist: Where Airports Really Make Their Money
Here’s something most travelers don’t realize:
Airports earn a huge chunk of their money not from planes, but from everything inside the terminals.
Globally, around 40% or more of airport revenue comes from:
- Shops
- Dining
- Duty-free
- Advertising
- Parking
- Hotels
- Lounges
In some major hub airports, this commercial income makes up up to 80% of profits.
Yes — the perfume store and your last-minute latte often earn more for the airport than the airplane you flew in on.
Changi understood this early and executed it brilliantly.
Between 2009 and 2019, its concession and rental income doubled from
SGD 537 million → SGD 1.17 billion.
Nearly half the airport’s revenue now comes from retail and services, allowing Changi to keep airline fees competitive.
This creates a self-reinforcing cycle:
- Great retail = more profit
- More profit = lower fees for airlines
- Lower fees = more airlines choose Changi
- More airlines = more passengers
- More passengers = more retail sales
A beautiful economic loop.
Singapore has essentially turned Changi into an economic weapon — a strategic business hub disguised as an airport.
Inside Changi: A Terminal That Feels Like a City
Walk into Changi and the strategy becomes obvious.
More than 400 shops and eateries fill the terminals — luxury brands, spas, electronics, local crafts, and more. Travellers actually prefer layovers in Singapore because of the experience.
Changi offers:
- Free 24/7 movie theatres
- A butterfly garden
- An indoor slide
- Themed resting zones
- Massive lounges
- Transit hotels
- A rooftop pool
Every attraction is placed cleverly to guide passenger flow past commercial zones.
And then came the game-changer: Jewel Changi.
Jewel Changi: The Icon That Reinvented Airport Design
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| Photo : Unsplash - Jewel Changi |
Opened in 2019, Jewel is a giant glass dome attached to the airport — part forest, part mall, part entertainment complex.
At its center is the HSBC Rain Vortex, a 40-meter indoor waterfall — the tallest in the world. Surrounding it is a lush forest valley, sky nets, a maze, walking trails, and hundreds of shops.
Costing SGD 1.7 billion, Jewel blurred the line between airport and destination.
Locals visit it on weekends. Travelers extend their layovers for it.
Every viral video of the waterfall indirectly markets Singapore to the world.
Global Competition: The New Airport Wars
Changi set the standard — but rivals quickly followed:
- Dubai International (DXB) built massive duty-free zones
- Seoul Incheon added skating rinks and culture museums
- Doha Hamad International unveiled an indoor rainforest
- Heathrow relied heavily on commercial revenue to finance upgrades
But Changi remains the benchmark — because it was first to understand that airports must become destinations, not just transit points.
Connectivity: Singapore’s Natural Advantage
Singapore sits at a geographic sweet spot — a crossroads between:
- Australia/New Zealand
- Southeast Asia
- India
- China
- Europe
Around 30% of Changi’s passengers are transit travelers. Singapore “imports” them, gives them a great layover, earns revenue, and sends them onward.
This connectivity also fuels:
- Cargo operations
- Logistics
- Pharmaceuticals
- Electronics trade
Changi handled over 2 million tons of freight in 2019, ranking among the world’s busiest cargo airports.
A Small Country With a Giant Footprint
Singapore’s population is tiny — just over 5 million.
Yet its airport competes with giants like Dubai, Heathrow, and Atlanta.
Why?
Because Changi isn’t just infrastructure.
It is:
- A strategic project
- An economic engine
- A global brand
- A tourism magnet
- A national symbol
It represents the idea that a country doesn’t need size to play big — it needs vision.
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