As colleagues from Changi Airport told me, COVID-19 set us back by at least 40 years, to 1981 when Terminal One first opened. But there is a big difference between then and now.
In the early 1980s, many airlines had not decided to come to Changi. We went all out to secure airlines, including unilaterally opening up our skies to invite the carriers to come to Changi.
Today, the airlines are here, and Changi has grown into a world-class airport.
Our challenge is to restore passenger volume, while keeping virus transmission under control. The circumstances are different, but we need the same hunger and enterprise as we had in the early 1980s.
A good place to start are the countries and territories where the virus transmission risk profiles are similar to or better than ours. Including transfer-transit traffic, they account for about 40% of our pre-COVID-19 passenger volumes.
But passenger volumes cannot be turned on and off capriciously.
We need to take sensible measures concurrently, proportionate to the risk profile of each country, and make progressive steps as we become more confident.
For example, we can consider unilaterally opening up to passengers from certain countries or regions which have kept the virus under control.
We can proliferate Reciprocal Green Lanes for business travel, and also expand them for general travel.
Serving 14-days isolation is a major deterrent to travelers, and we may have to consider replacing this with a rigorous testing regime.
Health and economic considerations are not at odds – we will find ways to revive our air hub and keep Singapore safe.
On my second day at MOT I visited Changi Airport. The management received me at Terminal Two, closed due to COVID-19.
Beautiful bougainvillea plants used to line the entrances to the departure hall, but on that day, the plants were all withered.
I asked Changi Airport Group CEO Lee Seow Hiang why. He said the Terminal has been closed, and they had to save costs, including on plant maintenance. He added “But bougainvillea are hardy, and they will live.”
I did what a gardener friend taught me and used my nails to scratch the bark of one of the withered plants. Indeed, underneath the dried brown bark, was a bright green stem. If the plant had a heart, it was still pumping strong.
When it comes to the fate of Singapore, the following truth holds: To survive, we have to keep our borders open. To thrive, we have to connect to the world. To prosper, we have to be a hub of the global economy.
Hence MOT’s mission – building the physical connections that bring Singaporeans together, the world to Singapore, and Singapore to the world.
COVID-19 has decimated air travel and incapacitated one of our lungs, but the Singapore heart – our determination, dynamism and enterprise – is still pumping strong. Changi Airport will one day be full again, SIA planes will once again soar. This is our collective mission in the coming months and years ahead, as we await the blooming of the bougainvillea once again.
-Excerpt of Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung's National Day Message to Mot.
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