Airport worker who opened her home to stranded passengers wins annual award

SINGAPORE – On Feb 23, 2024, Certis Aviation Security service operations executive Rowena Aranton was approached by three Filipino passengers at Changi Airport who had no boarding passes or luggage as they tried to board a flight to Shanghai.

The passengers – a woman, her young child and a female friend – had flown in from Manila to Terminal 1, and they had arrived at Terminal 3 for their connecting flight to Shanghai.

Being first-time travellers, they were unaware that they needed to clear immigration and collect their baggage from Terminal 1 before checking in again at Terminal 3, as their flight to Shanghai was on a different airline.

Ms Aranton, who is also a Filipina, was on duty outside the boarding gate to manage the queues for the flight when the passengers approached her.

Sensing their panic, she accompanied the trio back to Terminal 1 to fill in their arrival cards and collect their baggage. Despite these efforts, the passengers missed their flight to Shanghai.

As they were stranded for the night without proper accommodation, Ms Aranton opened the doors to her home for the night.

For her compassion and service, Ms Aranton was awarded the Service Personality of the Year award for 2024 at Changi Airport’s 30th Annual Airport Celebration held at Resorts World Sentosa.

She was among the 32 award winners lauded at the ceremony and received her award from Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat.

The woman and her friend, who were originally heading for London to visit their spouses, were supposed to take a connecting flight from Singapore to Shanghai before catching another flight from Shanghai to London.

When Ms Aranton spoke to them, they were distressed as they had maxed out their budget for air tickets and did not know how they would get to London.

The service operations executive then spoke to the airline, asking for either a rebooking or refund for the passengers’ tickets to Shanghai. As the women had bought the tickets through an agency, Ms Aranton was unable to help them.

She also suggested that they book a non-stop flight to London from Singapore, which they eventually did with money raised by their friends and family back home.

Understanding their financial situation and stress from being stuck in a foreign country, Ms Aranton, 46, who lives with her 16-year-old daughter, offered them a spare room in her Housing Board flat in Buangkok.

“Their budget was just enough for them to go straight to London, and they didn’t expect to miss the flight. And when they started crying, I couldn’t just walk away from them,” Ms Aranton said, tearing up as she recounted the story to reporters.

What was meant to be a group trip to London the next day was once again disrupted when the friend had issues with her UK travel visa. This caused an extra delay of three days to her travels.

Ms Aranton continued to host the friend while waiting for her visa to be approved as the mother and child headed to London first. During this period, she cooked meals and took the passenger to the Jewel Changi Airport retail and entertainment complex on her day off.

Ms Aranton was nominated for the award by the Certis quality management team that received feedback on her act of service from one of the spouses of the passengers.

“My biggest takeaway is the power of kindness and empathy. The way they showed gratitude to me cannot be compared with anything else,” Ms Aranton said, adding that she had faced a similar situation before and wanted to pay it forward.

The 2025 celebration also included two new award categories targeted at airside workers’ contribution to ensure safe airport operations – Outstanding Airside Staff of the Year and the Outstanding Airside Team of the Year.

One of these award recipients was engineering supervisor Mohammed Rais Ali from SIA Engineering Company. He was given the Outstanding Airside Staff of the Year award.

On Sept 10, 2023, Mr Rais responded to an

Air China flight that made an emergency landing in Singapore after its left engine caught fire.

Mr Rais, who had come back to work on his day off, was deployed to help remove the plane’s emergency slide raft after the passengers had evacuated.

He sprang into action, mobilising 15 men and additional equipment, including two flatbed trailers, which are flat metal platforms of 13m used to transport heavy and large equipment.

“When I was notified of the incident, I just started thinking of the fastest way to clear the aircraft out of the runway to prevent disrupting landing and departure,” the 42-year-old said, adding that his team was happy to help minimise downtime for operations.

When asked how he knew what to do in the incident, he attributed it to his 20 years of working experience with the company and what he learnt from watching air crash documentaries over the years.

This was the first time evacuation slides were activated on a runway in Changi Airport. The runway was shut down for a total of two hours and 48 minutes. This helped to shorten the recovery operation by 40 minutes.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Mr Chee praised Mr Rais for his efforts.

“He had the foresight to mobilise additional men and equipment to prepare for the removal of these slides, which accelerated recovery operations,” said the minister.

The Outstanding Airside Team of the Year award went to three teams from SIA Engineering Company; Changi Airport Group, ground-handling company GTRSG and Certis; and Asia-Pacific Star, another ground-handling agency.

Among the other awards was Service Partner of the Year, which was presented to the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) for new technological initiatives.

In 2024, ICA achieved full immigration automation, allowing passengers across all nationalities to use automated lanes without prior enrolment. ICA also spearheaded the world’s first passport-free clearance across Changi Airport terminals, eliminating the need for residents and foreign visitors to present their passports.