As more direct long-haul flights take off from Australia and New Zealand, Singapore’s airport is fighting back to deliver a stopover like no other.
The lush forest atmosphere at Jewel is a balm for travellers. Bloomberg
Stepping off a 14-hour-flight from Heathrow at 7.30am on a Sunday at Changi Airport, let’s just say no one is really at their best. Even the creature comforts of a Singapore Airlines’ business-class seat cannot totally counter jet lag and the seven-hour time difference from London.
Besides which, far more interesting than sleep were the onboard box-set entertainment and late-night snacks (hawker-inspired egg noodle soup with chicken and Asian greens, and, oh gosh, yes – another glass of the William Fèvre Chablis would be nice).
Jewel’s Rain Vortex and forest is a sight for jet-lagged eyes. Bloomberg
Pushing my luggage trolley through Changi, I mindlessly follow fellow passengers. I’m on my way to the Crowne Plaza Changi for a three-night layover en route back to Sydney, staying in a runway suite complete with deep-soak bath tub overlooking the tarmac.
It’s too late when I realise I’m still in herd-mentality mode – and have sailed right past the five-star airport hotel, located off to the side of Terminal 3.
I’m caught in the slipstream, and am now walking across an air bridge towards “Jewel”, a $S1.7 billion ($1.79 billion) relaxation, retail and dining complex I’m only vaguely aware exists, given it opened in mid-2019, not long before the pandemic slammed Australia’s borders shut.
It feels too hard to turn around so I press on with my fellow travellers – if only to stretch my legs.
Jewel’s calming design and colour scheme are proving a game-changer for airport entertainment. Bloomberg
Within minutes, we’re at the entrance of what can only be described as the Mecca of layover lounges. Before us is a massive, all-enveloping, amphitheatre-style, terraced tropical forest, ringing with birdsong. Being Singapore, it’s piped birdsong, but that somehow doesn’t detract. Natural light floods through the glass-dome ceiling, more than 40 metres high, and the sun’s rays touch the huge pool of water at the base.
(I later learn the water in the pool springs to action from 11am to 11pm daily to create the Rain Vortex, the world’s highest indoor fountain. Passengers are encouraged to get close to the spray as the perfect transit pick-me-up.)
Forget the London-to-Singapore trek. Within minutes, we’ve truly been transported from one world to another: from harsh fluorescent lighting, baggage carousels, anxiety-inducing “last call” announcements and the sinister temptations of duty-free to an entrancing indoor rainforest. We are all slack-jawed with wonder.
Changi’s Hub & Spoke Cafe offers al fresco dining and bike hire for travellers seeking fresh air.
“Wooow, Dad, this airport has Jurassic Park!” cries one deeply impressed British toddler. I, too, flap my arms in delight.
As we enter the age of direct long-haul travel, with so-called hub-busting flights between Perth and Rome from Qantas, Brisbane to Vancouver with Air Canada and the just-launched 17½-hour Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to New York, traditional layover destinations are working hard to ensure the growth of foot traffic.
Singapore Airlines’ senior vice-president for marketing planning, JoAnn Tan, isn’t too worried yet about the long-haul trend. “For now, revenge travel continues to outstrip all other pressures, including inflation, and we’re still seeing strong demand,” she says.
Natural light, greenery, good food, entertainment: who needs to go into the city?
“The past few years, people have felt something is missing. They simply want to travel, and they are doing that, especially at the premium end, to spoil themselves, and we hope to see [network] capacity return to almost 80 per cent by the end of this year.”
Nevertheless, given the time and travel disruption caused by stopovers, direct flights are a commercial threat to classic hub carriers out of Australia such as Singapore Airlines. Even the brave souls who’ve flown direct in economy are generally fans of “one hop and you’re there”.
“Direct is best” was rapidly becoming my mantra too, until I was invited on this trip to get acquainted with the suite of new products Singapore has rolled out as it fights to put the heart in the hub – tempting travellers to relax and enjoy the layover, with the benefits that too entails.
As Changi evolves, it will eventually become a satellite city, if it hasn’t already, thanks largely to Jewel.
Its new mega-terminal T5 is due to be completed by the mid-2030s. Bigger than all four current terminals combined, T5 is being marketed as the Titanic of airports: a state-of-the-art, mostly automated terminal (complete with robots) that should be largely “pandemic proof” by the time its designers are finished.
Refreshments at Hub & Spoke Cafe in Terminal 2.
Pre-pandemic, Changi was already on a mission to create a better travel experience, primarily by bringing the outside in. Take the Hub & Spoke Café in Terminal 2, which offers al fresco dining, and boasts three green walls bedecked with 2700 plant varieties. It opened not long before COVID-19 hit, and dishes up western cuisine and local favourites such as sweet-coconut kaya jam toast with taro milk tea.
The Jurassic Mile walk opened in 2020, stretching from Terminal 4 along the perimeter of the airport past the Tanah Merah Golf Club. Its name is a nod to the fact it’s scattered with giant dinosaurs. No comment.
Now Jewel is offering an elevated nature-themed mall that discounts the need to travel into the city centre if you only have one or two nights.
Crowne Plaza Changi offers a resort-style atmosphere.
Designed by a group of architects led by Moshe Safdie, who also did Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, the 10-storey Jewel complex includes 300 retail and dining outlets, as well as early baggage check-in facilities, all built around the terraced forest, with another vast green canopy area to explore on the top floor.
Checking into the Crowne Plaza Changi, I find a mutual Jewel fan in Bruno Cristol, the hotel’s general manager. “Jewel has already boosted the hotel’s revenue by more than 20 per cent,” Cristol says.
Don’t even try to book the hotel on a weekend: between the large resort-style landscaped pool, suites with runway views and Jewel, the good old Crowne Plaza Changi has, against the odds, become a “staycation” favourite with locals.
“Kids love it here – they play in the pool, then sit and watch the planes land and take off all afternoon, while their parents pop out for a quick shop next door at Jewel,” says Cristol.
The hotel will even deliver to your room a large platter containing a chocolate airport, complete with a dark chocolate runway lined with raspberries, white chocolate planes, and a macaroon-stack for the air traffic control tower.
The bar in Singapore Airlines’ refurbished Business Class SilverKris Lounge in T3.
Given Jewel has everything you need – from Michelin-starred restaurants to day spas, a movie theatre and Muji, plus most of the top-shelf European brands – it’s also boosting the appeal for corporates and leisure travellers to ditch the CBD and just stay at Changi.
For now, Crowne Plaza is the only five-star hotel available – until T5 opens, with three big-brand hotels billed.
Roll in the fact that Singapore Airlines has just spent more than $S50 million ($52.6 million) upgrading its key lounges in T3, and by the third day of airport lush, I’m questioning if I really need to fly home.
After a three-hour tour of the lounges with Philip Lim, Singapore Airlines’ head of premium passenger services, my main take out is that pointy-end passengers now have 30 per cent more lounge space and seats across four fully refreshed and expanded areas.
The Private Room is all about soft lighting, fine dining, and, what else, but privacy.
The large SilverKris Lounge has a first-class section, including a smaller, even more premium Private Room, a super exclusive area for just 78 passengers (read those travelling in suites). On the other side, you’ll find the business-class section. The separate KrisFlyer Gold Lounge is a mere 20 metres or so away. The four areas can collectively accommodate some 1150 customers across a total of 6100 square-metres.
The Private Room is a series of intimate, relaxing spaces (much like the screened suites on board), which fan out below the area’s visual centrepiece, a custom-designed Lalique light dome.
It’s à la carte only dining in here, but being posh doesn’t preclude snackable items like Wagyu burgers, chicken satay and laksa – with lobster and extra-big prawns; for bubbles, it’s 2007 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne.
Four small day rooms with either an Italian-designed Poltrona Frau recliner or a single bed (all with Tempur mattresses) complete the scenario. Guests may choose from a medium-firm Symphony pillow, or the soft-fluffy Cloud pillow. In other words, no duck down has been left unturned. All areas, including the showers, are wheelchair-accessible.
So pleasant have the past few days been, on take-off aboard the flight back to Sydney, I scrawl a red-pen note to self: “Call Los Angeles, Tokyo, Bangkok, Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi etc to check on new stopover experiences.”
The writer travelled courtesy of Singapore Airlines.
The Singapore Grand Prix runs from September 30 to October 2. One of the most technical courses on the Formula 1 calendar, it takes place over 61 laps of the 5.063-kilometre Marina Bay Street Circuit.
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