 Think Tech Away. Civil engagement lives here. Good afternoon and welcome to the Asian Review. I'm your host, Lily Ong, hosting all the way from Singapore Changi Airport today. We have with us today Mr. Topo Zhu, his device president of operations at Singapore Changi Airport. Welcome to the show, Mr. Topo. Thank you, Lily. Thanks for inviting. You're welcome. And Mr. Topo, I know that since 1981, Singapore Changi Airport has garnered over 500 accolades and 2015 alone it had received 28 best airport awards. I'm sure there's collaborations or factors that went into making this airport the best airport year after year. Perhaps you could talk to us about some of the tangibles and intangibles. What went into making this such a great airport? Could we perhaps start with the facilities? All right. Okay. So talking about the hardware in Changi Airport, we actually invest in a lot of infrastructure in the sense that we bring gardens indoor because Singapore is actually a garden city. So what we like to do is actually we want to bring our passengers to a lot of garden features. So we have the butterfly garden in Terminal 3, we have a cactus garden in Terminal 1, a sunflower garden in Terminal 2, and of course we have orchid gardens, we have enchanted gardens. So all these actually bring life to the airport because the greenery actually softened the touch of the airport. So it makes it a little more stress-free for our passengers when they travel through the airport. In addition, we actually have an outdoor swimming pool. So we are trying to target some of our transit passengers. So if they have a layover of about, say, five hours, actually it's quite nice to go to the pool and have a swim before they actually catch their next flight out of Singapore. Now you mentioned there are so many gardens. I imagine you have a lot of gardeners working here 24-7. Yes, we do. And plant specialists too. We have actually a horticultural team that specialize in plants. That's actually within Changi Airport Group. And of course we have our vendors to help us look after the plants and we'll do the watering every day. What's the size of some of these gardens that you mentioned? The size could be as good as a basketball court type of size that you're looking at. And how many species of butterflies can we expect to find? Just an estimate. I think it's hard, but I guess we breed our own butterflies. So we have our own incubator and then we release them after night days if I can recall correctly the incubation period. If I can recall correctly, maybe over 20 different butterfly species that we have here. Well, and I'm sure there's a reason that it goes into choosing certain flowers like sunflowers and orchids. Yes, of course we look at the weather element in Singapore. So I think these are the flowers that actually can sustain. And of course some of the gardens are outdoor and some are indoor. So for indoors I think we have to look into the lights, the proficiency of natural lights and of course artificial lights to make sure that the plants can thrive and grow in the airport. And there's some swimming pool. This is the only one I've heard of all the airports I've been to. And I've been to probably over 80 airports in the world. This is on a rooftop, you said? It's on, in Terminal 1, yes, it's on the higher level. So it's a rooftop, open air swimming pool. Is it accessible only to passengers in transit? Yes, only for passengers in the transit and it's actually a paid service, which is quite reasonable. So if you have a good long hours of layovers, it's actually quite nice to go for a swim out in the, you know, and get some fresh air. And to get a sun tan when you're on transit. And just like some of the top airports, I'm sure there's shower facilities and all of that. Yes, we do have shower facilities and in addition, we have two cinema, a movie theatre, so you can actually catch one of the latest screenings while waiting for your flight. And just a moment with the swimming pool, what if I forget to bring my swimsuit? Do you guys... Do you say for an ounce like S318 to London is a delay due to operational requirement? We estimate the time of departure will be 13, 15 hours, 1, 15 p.m. You know, I really appreciate this kind of announcement because if my flight is getting delayed, I would like to be informed. So this is good, yeah. Okay, back to the swimming pool. Yes, I guess you can rent equipment and, you know, towers from the vendor that actually manages the swimming pool. Because I bet a lot of passengers did know that there's actually a swimming pool right here in the Changi Airport, yeah. And what other facilities are there? So we have a movie theatre. Like I said, we have two movie theatres, one in terminal 2 and one in terminal 3. So it actually shows one of the later screenings so you can catch your favourite movies as you wait for your departing flights. Do you provide popcorns too? We don't, but you can get popcorns in the airport. Right. Of course, in addition, we do have a lot of playgrounds and play stations for our passengers, especially for families with little children. So we have very nice, of course, a safe playground which they get to enjoy. And what are some of the playground facilities? I heard about this taller slide. Yes, we have a taller slide. This is not a landside, so that's also allowed for non-traveling passengers to use as well. So that's one of the taller slides that we have. So it's quite easy. You just need to spend, I think, about $10 to get a coupon and you can just hop onto the slide. Of course, you must qualify for the Southern High Limits and once you are eligible, yeah, you can actually enjoy the slide, which is quite popular, especially on weekends. And how many other little small playgrounds are there? We have small playgrounds. Last year, we refreshed one of our playgrounds with putting the Hello Kitty team, because Hello Kitty is actually quite popular in Singapore, so we actually have that playground built with the characters from Sario characters. So this is what we do. And in the transit side, we have pretty big set-ups for playgrounds, which I think are small necks. A lot of kids climb up and down. And for a little bit of soft touch, sometimes we actually have our Changi Experience agents that can help to look after the kids while the parents go shopping. Are those the ones that I've seen that's wielding these iPads, walking around in purple and pink blazers? Yes, that's right. So we have two types of agents. One is managing all the info counters and the other one are roving agents, but they actually help passengers in distress if they've got caught in a transit not knowing what to do. And these roving agents can assist them. So I can go up to them, essentially, if I lose my baggage or if I want to know where to grab a cup of coffee. Wonderful. So other facilities that we have in the airport is we do have massage chairs. So they're all free for use and no need to put any coins. Oh, wonderful. Yeah, so they're all free to use and they are dotted across the entire terminals, all the four terminals in the airport. So that's what we do to really create that. And these are the high-end OC massages. These are the OC massages. Right. So we work with them and then we put them across. And then certain terminals actually have a full-body massage chair. But those are paid service. Those are also free. Oh, also free? Oh, free, yes. As long as it's OC machine and it's part of Changi Airport, it's available for free of use by our passengers. Wonderful. And I saw that there's a Sheila beauty lab that offers free makeovers. That's what they do, free makeovers for passengers. Even in terminal three, we have a bar. It's actually managed by the Raffles long bar. So they actually can concord the Singapore Sling for you if you're departing. Of course, that's after three hours, I mean after 3pm when you depart, you can just show your boarding pass and get a free drink on us. A free Singapore Sling. Free Singapore Sling. Wow. And that's from the authentic Raffles bar. That's really, that's really awesome. Wow. And I read about them. That's also a whiskey bar? Yes, there is a whiskey bar. I think they are kind of together. So of course, you know, there is also some distillation so you can see how this whiskey is being made. I did read that there's over 100 types of whiskey that's being sold there. That's right. And this is a great location because you're receiving a lot of high-end customers and so many nationalities too. And is it true that only Changi is chosen as the particular location to sell special concoction of whiskey? I think it's a combination of different reasons but I guess it's also the availability of a space because even though the airport is big, we are running out of realistic space. So anything that we can find, we can go with our vendor to try to put it up. I'm supposed to serve our passengers. Right. Well, I have to imagine this place running out of space because this is so spacious. How big exactly is Changi Airport? I don't know. I don't know how big the exact size but in terms of capacity, for all the four terminals, we can manage up to maybe five million passengers per year. So how many? 85 million passengers per year. 85 million passengers and that's including the latest terminal four. So which are the different airlines that are coming through? Are there, is there a particular terminal that's dedicated to Singapore Airlines? Yes, Singapore Airlines, they fly out of terminal two and three. So it depends on the destination. So for shorter destinations within Southeast Asia, they depart from terminal two whereas the Long Hall flights are out from terminal three. And I know that one of the very competitive is the budget airlines. Do they have a terminal that's dedicated to just the budget airlines? In the past, yes, but in 2012, we removed the budget terminal and then actually all the low-cost carriers had to move into the main terminal. So across all the four terminals, you do see low-cost carriers operating out of these terminals. And there is a terminal five that's in the works, isn't it? Yes, it's in the progress of building the terminal five. So of course we projected in about 10 to 15 years from now that they were coming to operations. But we are currently building the third runway so that we do see the demand of air traffic coming into Singapore. Right, yeah. I don't know what's the current hectares, but I know that with terminal five, it's going to grow up to 100 hectares and serving easily over 100... 150 million? 150 million. That's what we are targeting. Wow, perfect. Well, Mr. Tel, thank you so much. I'm going to take a little break here and when we come back, we can go into some of the surveys that you provide here. Thank you so much. Thank you. Aloha. I'm Kili Ikeena and I'm here every other week on Mondays at 2 o'clock p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii's Hawaii Together. We talk with some of the most fascinating people in the islands about working together, working together for a better economy, government and society. So I invite you into our conversation every other Monday at 2 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. Join us for Hawaii Together. I'm Kili Ikeena. Aloha. Hello, everyone. I'm DeSoto Brown, the co-host of Human Humane Architecture, which is seen on Think Tech Hawaii every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. And with the show's host, Martin Despeng, we discuss architecture here in the Hawaiian Islands and how it not only affects the way we live, but other aspects of our life, not only here in Hawaii, but internationally as well. So join us for Human Humane Architecture every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii. Welcome back to Asian Review. I'm your host, Lily Ong and we're here today at Singapore Changi Airport. Welcome back to the show, Mr. To. Hi. Mr. To, this is more than an airport. This is essentially a shopping paradise. What are some of the shops that we can find here? Right. We recently opened the Louis Vuitton. So it's one of the two only Louis Vuitton in the airport. And that's right there. That's right at the back. So it's a beautiful setup. Of course, right in front of the Louis Vuitton, we have a crystal garden. If you can see the picture, it's a beautiful set of crystals. And of course, we have a very striking blue carpet that goes with it. So that's the Louis Vuitton. Of course, we have Hermes. We have Chanel. Is that crystal garden? Is that sponsored by Louis Vuitton? Or that's separate? That's separate, right? That's separate. Okay, so we have, of course, Hermes. We have some of the big brands, YSL, we have Zegner. So these are the higher end brands. And how is the price as compared to, I mean, would I rather shop here or would I go downtown? It's definitely cheaper than in the city because we don't have the goods and services tax over imposed in the airport because these are in the transit area. So it's a tax-free zone. And do you know how the price is compared to, say, Europe or in America? I think it all depends on your exchange rate. But so far, I think Singapore is pretty competitive. So we do get a lot of passengers purchasing products here. And I understand from the Louis Vuitton that they actually have special products just for Singapore. Just for Singapore. And I imagine you get the latest in the line as well. I would think so, yes. That's right. So these are the services that we have, the shopping that we have. Of course, we have a lot of F&B outlets and we try to cater to different needs. So we have Chinese restaurants. We have Malay, Hala restaurants and we do have Indian vegetarian restaurants as well. Different tiers so that we can cater to different needs of our passengers. So we do have a food court style where the prices are more affordable and of course then we move on to actually a more higher tier of restaurants in the airport. Do you have an estimate of how many restaurants there are? It's just, I know it seems so counterless and there's so many choices. I think there's easily over 100 food outlets in the airport. That's right. The lounges here are not the best I've been to. For somebody to ask you they serve a lot of local variety too. That's right. That's really special. That's right. Yeah. So which is your favorite restaurant here? I guess you know a lot to say. Well, it's hard because I think the variety depends on really the mood that I like but I think it really caters to because I work here so sometimes I need a sandwich. I actually have easy to go to a sandwich bar if I need a Chinese noodle. There's something available. So I think it's just a great variety that I think even I personally have been working here for the last four years. I will never get sick of the food here. Well, I think Changi's glory goes beyond the local airport. You guys are also helping to help to set up and manage some of the airport in the Krusnada region in Russia. Could you tell us more about that? Yes, we do have a subsidiary. It's called Changi Airport International. So what they do is they actually manage airports outside Changi outside Singapore. So Russia is, I think they have four airports that they're managing. And in Jeddah was the other airport that was recently signed and do management. So that was, you know, these are some of the projects that they have abroad. So Sochi Airport was actually assisted. Yes, Sochi Airport was actually one of the airport that part of this CAI investment. So CAI was very involved in helping it to get ready for the Olympics. For the Olympics. That was about six years ago if I can talk directly. Wow, wonderful. What about you mentioned massage. Is there any other extras? I mean, most airports have the basic essentials. What are some of the other extras that you can tell us that kind of put Singapore Airport at the forefront? I saw some special decorations. Is that the kinetic rain? Right. When it comes to art installations, I think that's something that we are getting a bit more involved. So I think we have the kinetic rain that was in Terminal 1 and it's actually a moving rain drop that synchronizes with certain technology that we work with a German supplier. So I think it kind of moves and creates a very therapeutic scene. It does. Of course with that I think in Terminal 4 we have this moving clock patterns. So these clock patterns will move in a certain pattern and it's actually quite therapeutic as well. And in Terminal 2 recently we have put up a million time clock. So it's actually a very big installations where you see different lines moving together and can tell time in every two minutes. Otherwise they will just move in a sequential pattern which again it provides a bit of a wall factor for passengers. And one of the things I cannot help but notice is how well the sound is contained here. This is a huge airport with huge traffic. But I see some really large carpet not in all areas but what would you do as far as cell barriers and cell minimization is concerned. I guess the carpet helps with minimizing some of the noise but of course I think what we do in the airport is we actually remove some of the unessential announcements. Say for example the flight last call for example. So recently we removed that. So it makes the airport a lot quieter and actually allows a lot more stress free travel for our passengers. Of course if there is some exigencies for example the flight gate change which just now you heard in the earlier sections. Yeah we will make the announcement for that but otherwise your flight doesn't depart according to schedule for making the announcements so that it really reduces the noise level. Right and I am looking at this I am sure it is more than just aesthetic does this actually control the amount of natural lighting coming through? Yes in terminal 3 I think we are trying to do to be a bit more green in terms of energy conservation so we actually have a roof that allows natural light to come in so that will reduce the reliance on the electricity of course unless it is a day when it gets dark there is a rain then the electricity will kick in the lights will kick in otherwise we use natural light. Does every terminal has a particular theme? So far I think the newer ones because terminal 1 and 2 they are pretty old so terminal 3 I think we try to use this natural light and of course we have this huge green wall that settles between the departure and arrival level so anyone in both levels can actually see this huge green wall which is right above all of the innovations from time to time Yes we do we do refresh our terminal quite regularly so for terminal 1 I think we are currently going an expansion program to fit in this new upcoming project called dual which I will share a little bit more later so terminal 1 is currently going through what we call the terminal 1 expansion and we are looking into terminal 2 revamp in the next couple of years last year so and how long has Changi Airport been in operation since 1981 is that the same time as Singapore Airlines or? No it's the way longer because we moved previously from Pailet Bar there's this column and then we moved to Changi which is on the east coast of Singapore and over the years can you share some of the growing pains some of the things that you decided to do away with some of the things that you changed the most common one it's the internet I guess of course of a free wifi in the airport I think as with most airport I think these are the growing needs and we do actually put in a lot of facilities to help with our passengers in terms of way findings we have cures by just scanning your body passes can tell you exactly where you are and where you are supposed to go so in the future to search certain things whether shops online or even we have a iChangi app that allows you to even do way finding using that with wifi I noticed the chaos that you have to scan your passport for a code to get on a wifi is there a reason to do this extra step why not just let them block on this is actually a requirement with our Ministry of Home Affairs and there's so many cures so that's just one example I've also seen cures for photo taking and cures for customer service feedback in the bathroom and just about everywhere how many clicks do you get from this customer service cures that we see everywhere and how often do you look at the data and what do you do about it we get lots of clicks if you put them all together it really goes in tens of thousands per month so we do we do review our feedbacks that we get say for example we have this instant feedback system that we put in almost all the passenger's toilets so by rating whether you're happy or unhappy with the toilets it gives us a bit of feedback and there are two ways to look at it one is actually to allow instant feedback that we can address certain issues that passengers keep to us instantly so say for example if let's say they point that they are unhappy with the toilets because there's not enough toilet paper so by putting that in also there's an option for them to detail on that and then we can tell and then we will send passengers into the toilet I mean cleanliness in the toilet to address that and of course over time we collect this data so that we can actually understand which are the toilets that are highly frequent and which one tends to have a bit more issue and toilets aside where else can we find this customer service cures to make sure that they provide the good customer service so you can actually with them if let's say you are unhappy of course we will ask you why and then just that give us feedback allow us to do training and also try to understand maybe not all of the stuff are good for customer service and then for stuff with the car issues we actually do trainings and retraining using the data that we collect while Singapore has a lot of requirements in terms of languages so we do of course based on our top 10 destinations of travelers coming into Singapore so we try to make sure we have enough you know language speaking ability say for example we do get a lot of Chinese passengers so we must make sure that in every term there will be at least one Chinese speaking agent so that they can help it in English Malay Tamil and Chinese I see well from the time that my plane lands how soon can I expect to pick up my luggage well that's we will try to be as efficient as we can so general rule of thumb it's the moment that you arrive and to the time you board your taxi or your tour coach we hope to achieve in less than half an hour wow so not even pick up luggage from the time to pick up your transport your ground transport the airport so we hope to achieve everything within half an hour that's fabulous now I know airlines sometimes have a penchant for sending our baggage to where we are not going what does the Changi do in terms of helping passengers with retrieving lost baggage do you collaborate with the airlines yes we work very closely with the airlines so of course such services is provided by the airlines and we work with the ground handling agents to make sure that the experience will be minimized at least to help them with the distress and as far as heightened security do you have your own security staff or do you work closely with the Singapore police force we do have the airport police division that's working here and in addition of course they do the law and order maintenance of the airport of course when it comes to pre-board screening we actually have so yes we do make sure that the airport is of course we have certain features that we put in to ensure that the Changi airport is safe well thank you so much Mr Tell thanks for being with us today no problem thank you so much congratulations and we look forward to terminal 5 thank you