Singapore Changi Airport: Why It's Consistently Rated #1

Why Changi Consistently Ranks Number One

Singapore Changi Airport (IATA: SIN) has won the Skytrax World's Best Airport award twelve times since the ranking began in 1999. The achievement reflects a deliberate philosophy embedded in the airport's founding charter: the airport is not merely a transit hub but a destination in its own right. This philosophy shapes every design decision, from the 24-hour operation with no noise curfew to the decision in 2019 to open Jewel Changi Airport, a 135,700-square-metre lifestyle complex attached directly to Terminals 1, 2, and 3.

Changi is operated by Changi Airport Group, a government-linked company with a mandate to maximise passenger experience rather than purely commercial returns. This ownership structure allows Changi to invest in amenities — free city tours, a rooftop swimming pool, butterfly and sunflower gardens — that a privately owned airport optimising for short-term profit would not fund. The result is an airport that feels genuinely curated rather than commercially extracted.

The airport currently operates four passenger terminals — T1, T2, T3, and T4 — with Terminal 2 completing a major expansion in 2024 that added 55,000 square metres of passenger space and brought it to the same standard as the newer T3 and T4. A fifth terminal, the largest ever planned by Changi, is under construction and expected to open in the mid-2030s.

Jewel Changi Airport: The Centrepiece

Jewel Changi Airport opened in April 2019 and immediately became the single most-discussed airport facility in the world. The building is a glass-and-steel torus designed by Moshe Safdie, best known for Habitat 67 in Montreal. At its centre falls the Rain Vortex, a 40-metre indoor waterfall — the world's tallest indoor waterfall — fed by collected rainwater and illuminated at night by a light and sound show visible from the upper floors of all four terminals.

Surrounding the Rain Vortex is the Shiseido Forest Valley, five storeys of terraced gardens containing 2,000 trees and over 100,000 shrubs from tropical, temperate, and Mediterranean biomes. Passengers in transit can walk canopy bridges through the forest, pause at a hedge maze on the rooftop, or visit the Mirror Maze, a 1,000-square-metre optical illusion installation on the fourth floor. For children, a 14-metre indoor slide drops through multiple floors of the building.

Jewel also contains 280 retail and food and beverage outlets, anchored by Singapore's only YOTEL — a capsule-style hotel with pod rooms bookable by the hour — and a full-size Shake Shack, a Pokémon Centre Southeast Asia, and several regional hawker food stalls serving local favourites at below-airport pricing. Critically, Jewel is accessible to both arriving passengers who have cleared immigration and transit passengers who have not, making it available to the widest possible audience regardless of departure or arrival status.

Terminal Guide and Airline Allocations

Terminal 1, the oldest, handles airlines including Emirates, Air France, KLM, Cathay Pacific, and several Southeast Asian carriers. It was built in 1981 but has been substantially renovated and is connected to T2 by a covered Skytrain shuttle that runs every two to three minutes, 24 hours a day. T1 has the least retail density of the four terminals but is quieter and has shorter security queues during off-peak hours, which some experienced travellers prefer for red-eye departures.

Terminal 2 handles Singapore Airlines, SilkAir (now merged into Singapore Airlines), and a range of Asian carriers. The 2024 expansion added new gates capable of handling the Airbus A380 and Boeing 777X simultaneously, along with a redesigned arrivals hall with expanded immigration counter capacity. T2 is also home to Changi's main transit hotel facility, Ambassador Transit Hotels, which offers day-use rooms by the hour from S$60.

Terminal 3 is the flagship terminal, handling Singapore Airlines' mainline international flights and Star Alliance partners including Lufthansa, Swiss, United, and Air Canada. Its architectural highlight is the hanging garden ceiling in the transit area, where over 200,000 plants create a living green canopy above the retail concourse. T3 also houses the largest food court in the airport system, the food hall at Basement 2, which serves authentic local dishes at non-tourist prices.

Terminal 4, opened in 2017, handles budget and low-cost carriers including Cathay Pacific's budget subsidiary HK Express, Korean Air, and several ASEAN carriers. It is physically separate from the main T1–T2–T3 complex and requires a free shuttle bus or separate Skytrain journey. T4 uses a fully automated check-in and bag-drop process with no traditional check-in counters, making it the fastest terminal in the airport for passengers who have already checked in online.

Free Services and Transit Amenities

Changi offers a range of free services that no other major hub airport can match in breadth. The most notable is the free Singapore city tour, available to transit passengers with layovers of five and a half hours or more. The Heritage Tour covers Merlion Park, Marina Bay Sands, and the colonial district in approximately two and a half hours. The City Lights Tour covers the same landmarks after dark. Both tours operate daily and depart from T2 and T3 immigration halls at set times throughout the day.

Changi also offers a free swimming pool and rooftop spa for transit passengers, located in T1's transit zone. The pool is free to use between 6 a.m. and midnight; towels cost S$10 to rent. Adjacent to the pool is the rooftop cactus garden and sunflower garden, the latter planted seasonally and maintained by the airport's horticulture team. These are genuine gardens, not decorative planters — Changi employs over 200 horticulturalists full-time.

The airport's Wi-Fi network delivers consistent speeds above 50 Mbps throughout all terminals and Jewel, with no time limit and no login requirement beyond a one-tap acceptance screen. Charging stations are available at every gate seat, not merely in designated charging areas. The airport's cinema — free for transit passengers showing a boarding pass — screens movies continuously in a proper theatre setting with reclining seats, located in T3's transit zone.

Ground Transport to Singapore City

The Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) East–West Line connects Changi Airport directly to the city centre. Trains run every four to six minutes from 5:31 a.m. to midnight, with a journey time of approximately 30 minutes to Raffles Place in the CBD. A single journey costs between S$1.90 and S$2.50 depending on destination, paid using a standard EZ-Link card purchased at the station or a credit card with contactless payment capability. The MRT station is located in the basement connecting T2 and T3, accessible from all terminals via covered walkway or Skytrain.

The Airport Shuttle operates directly between Changi and major hotels in the city centre for S$9 per person, dropping passengers at the hotel door without the need to carry luggage on the MRT. Booking is available at the Ground Transport Concierge desks on the arrival level of each terminal, or via the iChangi app. Ride-hailing services including Grab operate from designated pickup points on the arrival level; typical fares to the CBD are S$20–35 depending on time of day and demand.

Taxis from the official taxi stands are metered, with a S$5–8 airport surcharge applied on top of the meter fare. The full journey to the CBD costs approximately S$25–35. Private car services and limousines depart from the same ground floor area. For passengers travelling to hotels in the Orchard Road corridor, the direct SBS Transit bus service 36 operates from T1, T2, and T3 for S$2.40, though the journey takes 55–70 minutes depending on traffic.

Lounges and Dining

Changi's lounge ecosystem is among the most developed at any airport. Singapore Airlines operates The Private Room, available only to Suites and First Class passengers, and The SilverKris Lounge in T2 and T3 for Business Class passengers and KrisFlyer Elite Gold members. Both lounges feature local hawker-inspired food menus curated by Singapore-based chefs, a step above the standard hot-buffet lounge fare typical at other airlines' facilities.

Star Alliance members benefit from the SilverKris Lounge access agreements, and OneWorld carriers use the Cathay Pacific lounge in T1, which maintains the same high standard as the airline's flagship Pier lounge in Hong Kong. Independent lounge access is available through Priority Pass and Lounge Key at several partner lounges throughout the terminal system, with the SATS Premier Lounge in T1 offering particularly strong dining and a peaceful atmosphere during peak hours.

Airside dining beyond the lounges is exceptional by any international standard. The hawker food courts in each terminal serve authentically prepared laksa, chicken rice, roti prata, and char kway teow at prices between S$6 and S$14. Full-service restaurants including Din Tai Fung in T3 offer sit-down dining from 6 a.m. to midnight. The overall food quality — consistently cited as Changi's greatest differentiator from European and American airports — reflects the importance of food culture in Singapore more broadly.