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Thursday, January 10, 2008 Singapore opens
"green" airport terminal
By Daryl Loo
SINGAPORE (Reuters)
- Singapore opened a new "green" airport terminal on Wednesday,
boasting energy-saving skylights, a butterfly garden and over 200 species of
foliage spread over enough floor space to cover 50 soccer fields. The S$1.75 billion
($1.22 billion) terminal at state-owned Changi Airport received its first
passengers, who landed on a Singapore Airlines flight from San Francisco amidst
a high-powered welcoming committee including government ministers. The new terminal,
Singapore's third, boosts Changi's total passenger capacity by around 45
percent to 70 million, as airports throughout Asia expand to gear up for
predictions of strong growth in regional travel. Among the 28
aerobridge gates in the terminal are eight that are specially designed to
handle the new Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger jet, the first of
which is being flown by Singapore Airlines. But booming air
travel is seen by environmentalists as bad news for greenhouse emissions, with
aviation likely to be a controversial topic in discussions run by the United
Nations to choose a pact to follow the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The terminal is
designed to run on lower energy costs compared to the older terminals, mainly
via natural lighting from the 919 skylights and by positioning air-conditioners
nearer to floor-level. "The cost to
run the terminal should be lower. But it's still too early to project what the
cost-savings will be," said a spokesman from the Civil Aviation Authority
of Singapore, which manages the airport. The terminal has a
striking five-storey high wall of hanging plants, a butterfly garden and koi
ponds dotted amid its gleaming 380,000 square meters (4 million sq ft). But for Australian
traveler Dawn Massey, 51, transiting with her husband on a flight back to Perth
from the United Kingdom, the green features were barely noticeable. "That's not
something very important to us," said Massey, adding that she was more
impressed with the new terminal's cleanliness and orderly signs. "It's very
reflective of Singapore actually," she said. The city-state has long
cultivated a reputation as a "garden city" and is also well-known for
the cleanliness of its streets, where chewing gum is banned and littering draws
heavy fines. Singapore is
competing against Hong Kong and Bangkok to be the region's top aviation hub. |
