6-storey office building planned near Changi Airport Terminal 3

SINGAPORE – The operator of Changi Airport is looking to develop a new office building near Terminal 3.

Changi Airport Group (CAG) in February received permission from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to build a new six-storey landside office building, which will include a sheltered coach stand.

Landside refers to areas before immigration clearance that are generally accessible to the public.

The permission, which also cleared CAG to carry out additions and alterations to Terminal 3, stated that the building will have 12,933.69 sq m set aside for commercial use, and 2,612.22 sq m for airport use.

In response to queries from The Straits Times, CAG spokesman Ivan Tan said on May 4: “With regard to the T3 office building, CAG is assessing its options.”

He did not give further details about where the building would be located, its development timeline, or who the building’s occupants would be.

The permission granted to CAG states that the new building is not to exceed 40m in height, and that this limit includes structures and fixtures on the building’s roof, such as antennae, water tanks and lift motor rooms.

CAG is also to consider the solar reflectance of materials used on the building’s exterior, as this may affect aircraft in flight, and also to account for the effects of aircraft noise and vibrations because of the site’s proximity to Changi Air Base.

Plans for the new office building come amid recent and forthcoming development works at the airport, which is due to add a fifth terminal in the mid-2030s that will raise the airport’s annual passenger capacity from 90 million to 140 million.

Passenger capacity at the airport has been expanded in recent years, with Terminal 1’s last upgrade in 2019, and the latest expansion of Terminal 2 completed in November 2023.

Acting Minister for Transport Jeffrey Siow on April 29 announced that Terminal 3 will get a major upgrade in the coming years, with the focus on improving the terminal’s passenger handling capacity, especially during peak hours.

The latest statistics released by CAG in April showed that about 17.6 million passengers passed through the airport in the first quarter of 2026, 2.3 per cent more than during the same period in 2025, even as travel between Singapore and the Middle East fell due to the war in Iran.

For the 12 months up to March, passenger traffic rose 2.9 per cent year on year to 70.4 million, the highest in a 12-month period.

Ms Mabel Kwan, managing director at Alton Aviation Consultancy, said that with the airport growing its passenger capacity and air traffic increasing, the pool of staff supporting the aviation sector will have to grow in tandem.

“These include corporate staff of airlines, ground handlers and airport operations staff,” she said, when asked about the need for more office space in Changi Airport.

“Some aviation companies may also be looking for offices with larger floor plates to consolidate their existing spaces, which could be now scattered over several areas,” Ms Kwan added.

Mr Mayur Patel, commercial and industry affairs leader for the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions at OAG Aviation Worldwide, said that existing terminal spaces in the airport are primarily optimised for passenger processing and retail operations rather than modern office use.

“A dedicated office building allows the airport to centralise commercial and operational tenants in a purpose-built environment while freeing up valuable terminal space for core passenger functions,” he said.

“It also provides flexibility to support future growth linked to Terminal 5 development and wider aviation ecosystem expansion.”

Mr Patel said the space in the planned building set aside for airport use suggests that a portion of the building will serve operational functions or back-end airport activities.

The relatively large commercial space allocation, he said, “indicates there is also likely intent to lease space to external tenants”, such as aviation technology firms or cargo and logistics operators.

Ms Kwan said that for CAG, renting out office spaces to third parties would help contribute to the airport’s non-aeronautical revenue.

Mr Patel added that having more office space at the airport supports ambitions to “strengthen its role as a regional aviation and business hub, not just a transport node”.

“Airports globally are increasingly developing airport-city or aerotropolis models where commercial, logistics, hospitality, and office functions are integrated around the airport ecosystem,” he said.

Mr Patel also said the inclusion of a sheltered coach stand is notable because it suggests that the building is being planned with workforce mobility and ground transport integration in mind.

“That points toward a practical mixed-use operational facility rather than a purely commercial office tower,” he noted.

Separately, CAG also holds URA planning approvals for two mixed-use developments in Tanah Merah Coast Road.

The first has 40,913 sq m set aside for office use, 72,541 sq m for retail use, and 14,118 sq m for hotel use, which is expected to yield 360 rooms. The other development has 11,662 sq m of office space and 32,152 sq m for retail purposes.

Asked about these approvals, CAG’s Mr Tan said the company had no details to provide.

Construction work on Terminal 5, which will be within the 1,080ha Changi East area, began in 2025.

Changi East is bound by Tanah Merah Coast Road on its south-eastern end, where the upcoming Changi East Urban District – a 40ha business and lifestyle hub – will be located.