From a robot bartender to an immersive garden, T2’s refreshed transit area has an array of attractions and features to occupy passengers waiting to board their flights.
Even within public areas, operator Changi Airport Group (CAG) has added new but familiar features, retaining some of the 32-year-old terminal’s iconic sights and sounds.
Come journey with The Straits Times through T2’s spaces and discover what lies in store for those who will be part of the terminal’s next chapter.
At about four storeys tall, the “waterfall” is difficult to miss for those entering T2’s departure hall from its drop-off point.
Located at the heart of the hall, The Wonderfall – a 14m-high and 17m-wide multimedia wall – is the terminal’s centrepiece.
Amid the bustle of travellers checking in their luggage and ensuring their travel documents are in order, The Wonderfall offers a soothing presence, exuding an air of calmness as “water” cascades down the LED wall.
Once every 30 minutes, T2’s visitors are treated to a four-minute-long musical show, Rhythms Of Nature, as the 892-tile digital display comes alive to the accompaniment of music composed by Canadian pianist Jean-Michel Blais specially for the show.
Away to the left, on the terminal’s third floor, a faint but distinct whirring of flaps can be heard, transporting travellers back to pre-refurbished T2 when two iconic Solari boards hung from the departure hall’s ceiling.
Having been replaced by electronic boards, 1,080 split-flap capsules from one of the two decommissioned analogue boards have been repurposed by CAG in a new installation, Flap Pix.
The capsules now work, in unison, to arrange themselves in the likeness of visitors who take a self-portrait using the installation’s camera.
The other analogue board, seen here on Feb 6, 2020 – the day it was decommissioned – was transferred to the National Collection.
A part of this board is now on display at the National Museum of Singapore.
While The Wonderfall and Flap Pix are in the departure hall’s public areas, more upgrades and new features lie beyond the immigration lanes, accessible to those travelling.
In total, more than 21,000 sq m of floor space was added to the terminal through the refurbishment and expansion project, which began in May 2020.
CAG says the works have added five million passengers per annum to Changi’s capacity, taking the airport’s total capacity across four terminals to 90 million passengers yearly.
T2, which reopened in stages from May 2022, can now serve up to 28 million passengers per annum – making it the largest of the airport’s terminals by capacity – up from 23 million before.
This was made possible in part by the addition of automated immigration kiosks and lanes, which allow passengers to pass through more quickly than they would at manual counters.
Within the departure hall, the number of automated check-in kiosks and bag drop machines has almost doubled to more than 100, with airlines able to tap common-use infrastructure such as the bag-drop machines to reduce stress on manpower.
Currently, passengers flying with Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines and All Nippon Airways from T2 can utilise the automated kiosks and machines.
The terminal is designed for flexibility, allowing check-in areas to be reconfigured when the need arises.
For instance, the bag drop machines are modular and can be shifted. They can also be converted to a more traditional manned check-in counter, complete with desks for airline staff to place their computers on.
At the immigration area, the process is also automated, and has been made friendly for persons with disabilities and families with young children with the use of special assistance lanes.
These lanes are wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs or more than one person at a time.
T2 is the first terminal in the airport to have such lanes at both the departure and arrival immigration areas.
Like the kiosks in the departure hall, the automated immigration gates can be reconfigured, allowing special assistance lanes to be made wider, or even removed in favour of more single-person lanes.
Beyond the immigration gates in the northern wing of the transit area is one of Lotte Duty Free’s outlets in the airport.
Whimsical scenes inspired by Li Bai’s poem Drinking Alone Under The Moon are played on the LED ring.
Customers place their cocktail orders using a touchscreen display.
Downloading the LotteSG app and creating an account allows one to receive a complimentary cocktail from Toni, a robot bartender from Italy.
On the shop’s second floor, customers can sample whiskey from an 18-bottle dispenser while taking in views of displays on an LED ring that were inspired by Tang dynasty poet Li Bai.
Farther away from the immigration area is Gourmet Garden – a dining area with a view, where passengers can grab a bite before boarding their flight.
Spot tailfins of up to 16 airlines from Gourmet Garden’s full-length windows.
The area’s green walls and blades have built-in automated irrigation systems.
A range of cuisines from Singapore and abroad are available in the area, which has 17 shops.
With floor-to-ceiling windows facing the terminal’s gates, the area is excellent for tailfin spotting.
Sixteen airlines operate at T2, with flights connecting to 40 cities. Among those that use the terminal is Singapore Airlines, whose flights to and from South-east Asian cities depart from and arrive at T2.
Designed for guests to experience dining within a garden, Gourmet Garden’s green walls and overhanging “branches” take pride of place, and stand in contrast to the steel and glass that enclose the area.
Adding to the experience are two eye-catching aquariums that stand at the southern entrance to the dining space.
Parents with children can make a beeline for 2 Bears Hideout, a play area located in a corner of Gourmet Garden that has an oversized bear and bee-themed structures for kids to expend their energy at.
Those looking to calm their minds ahead of long flights can visit Dreamscape, a new garden that brings together a digital display, more than 20,000 plants and a few ponds to give visitors an escape from the stressors of travel.
Passengers can get a sense of time and place despite being indoors as the digital sky replicates daylight conditions outside the airport.
Hanging greens were inspired by natural formations such as stalactites in Malaysia’s Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak.
The ponds are filled with fish such as cichlids.
A digital skylight above the garden emulates real-time daylight and weather conditions in Changi, using data from the airport’s weather system.
The feature periodically transits into short shows that give visitors the sense of being underwater, as “animals” swim by on the surface above them.
When standing on Dreamscape’s acrylic panels, visitors can also gaze at fish – real ones this time – swimming beneath their feet in one of the garden’s ponds.
The garden includes a series of hanging and standing green structures, which altogether contain more than 100 plant species.
Among them are two not commonly seen in Singapore.
Calls of birds, insects and other animals that were recorded in Singapore, including on Pulau Ubin, are projected throughout Dreamscape.
Over in T2’s baggage claim area, two belts have been lengthened to handle higher luggage volumes from larger aircraft.
CAG’s programme director for T2’s expansion project, Mr Tan Lye Teck, says the group hopes “every user will find great pleasure and discover wonder whenever they travel through T2”.