Improvement of Changi Airport Group

This report discusses about the improvement of the Changi Airport Group and the various phases of their improvements. Changi Airport Group Singapore is the major civilian airport of Singapore and it has become one of the largest transport hubs of the South East Asia.

Running head: CHANGI AIRPORT
Changi Airport Group
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
This report discusses about the improvement of the Changi Airport Group and the various
phases of their improvements. Changi Airport Group Singapore is the major civilian airport
of Singapore and it has become one of the largest transport hubs of the South East Asia. In
recent time, it is the world’s best airport rated by Skytrax and it holds its position for last six
years. It is located at eastern part of Singapore in Changi. This airport has 4 major passenger
terminals and it is assumed that, almost the airport handles almost 85 million passengers in
every year. In addition to the 4 terminals, an addition terminal is planned to open by the end
of 2030. In this airport, almost 230 retail stores of 200 different brands are present and 110
food stalls are also scattered within the 70,000 square metres in concession space of Changi
Airport Group. Changi Airport Group’s new corporate structure of this airport is airport is has
become a future opportunity for growth for this airport in near future. However, therefore a
flaws can be identified for future recommendation in this report.

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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
SWOT Analysis.....................................................................................................................................3
PEST Analysis.......................................................................................................................................5
Innovation and Role of Innovators........................................................................................................7
Change and Innovation..........................................................................................................................8
Kotter’s Eight Steps of Changing..........................................................................................................8
Recommendation and Conclusion.......................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Changi Airport Group Singapore is the major civilian airport of Singapore and it has
become one of the largest transport hubs of the South East Asia. In recent time, it is the
world’s best airport rated by Skytrax and it holds its position for last six years. It is located at
eastern part of Singapore in Changi (Wattanacharoensil and Schuckert 2015). This airport has
4 major passenger terminals and it is assumed that, almost the airport handles almost 85
million passengers in every year. In addition to the 4 terminals, an addition terminal is
planned to open by the end of 2030. This airport only handles the international traffic and all
the active terminals are equipped with immigration-processing facilities. In addition to the
passenger facilities, Changi Airport Group (Changi Airport Group), also has a cargo division
and it is maintained by the Changi Airfreight Centre. In 2012, the cargo division of Changi
Airport Group handled almost 1.81 million tonnes of air cargo. The security issue of Changi
Airport Group is covered by the airport police division of Singapore Police Force (SPF). In
addition to this, the SATS security services and Aetos also associated with the ground
security checking services of the Changi Airport Group ( Pak 2017). The terminals of this
airport are interconnected through skytrain services and during the nonoperation period, the
passengers can walk through this way to go to different terminals (Changi Airport Group
2010). Presence of most of the modern facilities for the improvement of customers’
experience, makes this airport world’s number one airport for the six consecutive years. In
this report, a detailed analysis of the services, SWOT analysis, PEST analysis, mode of
changings for Changi Airport Group are discussed in a brief manner.
SWOT Analysis
SWOT stands for strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats and while analysing
this aspects of Changi Airport, it can be said that service excellence is one of the strengths of

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this airport. Delivering an excellent services to the customers is the primary focus of Changi
Airport Group and this encourages the passengers to use this airport during travelling. In
addition to this, to promote the airport’s commercial business services, the Changi Airport
Group along with their retail partner tries to provide a wonderful retail experiences to the
passengers and this airport itself has become a shopping destination. This high level of
customer centred approach of Changi Airport Group management strengthen the presence of
this airport in the map of world’s airport scenario. In this airport, almost 230 retail stores of
200 different brands are present and 110 food stalls are also scattered within the 70,000
square metres in concession space of Changi Airport Group (Changi Airport Group 2010).
Every year, worlds’ renowned companies open their retail shops opens their retail shop in the
airport and this trend makes this airport a must go destination of the world travellers. While
analysing the weakness of this airport it can be mentioned, the market of cargo aviation is not
up to the expected mark and it is reported that, market condition is weaker with a cargo
transportation with 1.7 million tonnes and it is almost 2.9% lower than that of the cargo
aviation of last year (Singapore Tourism Board 2019) In addition to this, this airport is
providing services by using only 4 terminals. However, in each every year, the number of
passengers using this airport is enhancing and this may be counted as weakness of this airport
(Changi Airport Group 2010). Moreover, presence of huge numbers of retail shops make the
space very narrow and this another weakness of this airport (Tsui et al. 2014). On the other
hand, while analysing the future opportunities of this Changi Airport, it is observed that
multiple factors are present. Changi Airport Group’s new structure that is the corporate
structure of this airport is airport is has become a future opportunity for growth for this
airport. In addition to this, the worldwide connectivity of this airport has become another
opportunity of Changi Airport Group. It is reported that, the almost 86 airlines companies
operates through this airport with almost 5000 flights in a week and Changi Airport Group is

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connecting almost 200 cities of 60 different countries of this world ( Poon 2017). The
introduction of Taxi Management System (TMS) also helped in the improvement of transport
system across the airport and thereby the passenger experiences are also improving. This will
encourage more passenger to travel through this airport. In addition to this, presence of
information desks in the lounge area of the airport also help in improvement of passengers’
experience and good passenger experience will promote the good reputation of this airport
(Changi Airport Group 2010). It is reported that, any type of exciting activities are happening
in the Changi Airport and it will prevent the passengers from getting bored during long
waiting time. In addition to this, an expansion program was conducted for the Airport and as
part of this, the number of check in counters are also increased in numbers from 18 to 25. The
numbers of passengers’ entry gate is also enhanced (Koc and Durmaz 2015). For analysing
the threats of Changi Airport, it can be said that, the use of technology can be one of the
biggest threats to this Changi Airport Group organization. Although it is very contradictory in
terms of accessible information. From the report, it can be said that the Changi Airport Group
introduced an intelligent vision-based runway FOD (Foreign Object Debris) Detection
System, named iFerret that is completely dependent on internet use. During any natural
calamity condition, if the internet system becomes defective then, this modern safety system
may not work in a proper manner and it can be marked as one of the threats for this airport
as this security issue is directly related to the safety issue of the passengers in the aircraft
( Wu et al. 2018). Moreover, lack of knowledge among the stakeholders of Changi Airport
Group regarding this new technology can be another threat for the Changi Airport Group
authority.
PEST Analysis
In Singapore, the political condition for the aviation industry is quite favourable and
due to the positive support of Singapore government towards the aviation industry can

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promote the improvement of Changi Airport Group. Singapore government follows a liberal
aviation policy in order to provide immense support to the aviation industry. The
government of Singapore signs agreements with various other countries in order to liberalize
the aviation industry and this will positively impact the Changi Airport. This liberalizing
strategy opens up the aviation market by many ways. Due to this liberalization, policy of the
government, the rate of international traffic has also enhanced by 21% and in addition to this
the reduction in the fares also promotes more passengers to travel through airlines and this
may help in further growth of the Changi Airport Group (InterVISTAS-EU Consulting 2009).
The enhancement of consumer surplus also promote the improvement of Changi Airport
Group. Although, the growing economy of Singapore is quite favourable for various
industries along with this aviation sector, this economy is facing challenges in a global
environment along with the local economic condition. With advancement of world, changing
structures of international competitiveness, growing economic nationalism can adversely
affect the economic condition of the country. In the domestic economy, Singapore is facing
the problems of ageing population, rising costs, slowing population growth, weak innovation
capacity, and declining productivity growth (Changi Airport Group 2010). This can impact
the economy of the country in an adverse way. The slowness of the country’s economy will
affect the aviation industry as well. While analysing the social impact, it can be said that, the
Changi Airport Group authority is concentrating on providing best experience to the
passengers of different social culture (Tan 2016). In order to provide cultural experiences of
Singapore, Changi Airport Group authority, celebrates various festival such as Chinese New
Year, Christmas, Deepavali and Hari Raya and during those time, the terminals were
decorated as per the requirement of that festivals. This society centred approach also
promotes the reputation of this airport in front of this world and it is observed that, during
those festival days, this airport has become the obvious destination for the photographers of

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different countries of this world. Changi Airport Group authority is also focusing on the
technological advancement through securing the environmental sustainability of the airport.
The Changi Airport Group authority implemented modern technology in order to reduce the
pollution burden to the environment. As a part of their technology use, the Changi Airport
Group authority has introduced the machines for recycling polluted water, energy-efficient
equipment and heat recovery system, artificial intelligent operated light in the airport and for
conserving the electricity in the airport during peak hours the lights are planned to dim
(Kılkış, Ş. and Kılkış 2016). In addition to this, the installation of motion sensors in the
entrance and exit zone, toilet areas are also reported by the Changi Airport Group authority
and such technological initiatives will definitely affect the passenger satisfaction in a positive
manner.
Innovation and Role of Innovators
As, the vision of Changi Airport Group is to give an extraordinary travel experiences
to the every passengers, the innovators should broaden their area of innovation. Moreover, it
is quite evident that, only teamwork can achieve an exceptional results in the way of
achieving excellence. The main value of the must be the people that is the passengers and it
can be said that, the innovators should keep in mind that, the passengers are the primary pillar
for achieving growth. In addition to this, the Changi Airport Group authorities should
consider the customers as their inspiration (Changi Airport Group 2010). The innovators of
Changi Airport Group authorities should consider the needs of the customers in a priority
basis and they should anticipate the needs of the passengers so that, they can design the
innovation as per the needs of their passengers. In addition to this, as part of the broader
innovation, the innovators of the Changi Airport Group authority should also predict the
needs of the passengers so that they can have a better experience during their journey.

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Moreover, from the report, it is noted that, the Changi Airport Group authority has set a
different standards for their services and as a part of this, they have created a sustainable
system for their airport. Therefore, it is quite appreciable that, the airport authority think
about the sustainable system for improving the customer experiences in their airport. The
Changi Airport Group authority innovators must consider the safety issues, innovation and
excellence for in all aspects so that they can broaden the area of innovation for their
passengers (Changi Airport Group 2010). Therefore, the management should also consider
their partners while thinking about their innovative steps so that their partners can also take
part in their process of innovation. It is observed that, the in a collaborative practice, the
success of one partner is aligned with the success of other partners and in case of Changi
Airport, this collaborative practice is very important as they are aligned with various other
partners for commercial reason and the innovators of Changi Airport Group should consider
the success of other partners so that they can have the best outcomes in terms of their
business by collaborating with other partners. In addition to this, the innovators should also
focus on the environmental impact of this industry so that this effect can be minimized
(Changi Airport Group 2010).
Change and Innovation
In terms of change in the Changi airport Group the role of innovation is very crucial.
However, innovative changes can be very scary for new people and they generally prefer to
keep all the things same. However it is evident that, status quo can restrict people from
implementing any changes and in multiple studies it is observed that, people generally prefers
traditional option during making any decisions due to the presences of their status quo. This
biasness may restrict the Changi Airport Group authority to implement additional changes in
their airport as they may have fear of getting rejected by the passengers and in recent time
they are highly preferred by the passengers. However, they should concentrate on the

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potentials for gain by innovative changes and should provide less emphasis on the facts being
rejected by the passengers. The Changi Airport Group authority should provide more
emphasis on the benefits that they may get after implementing a new innovative plan.
Although it is difficult to implement changes in an organization, still is a good step for the
organization (Changi Airport Group 2010).
Kotter’s Eight Steps of Changing
Kotter’s eight steps model can be applied to the changing nature of a particular
organization and in case of this Changi Airport, this model of change can also be applied to
describe its change over the time. The first step of this model is create urgency for the change
(Castro and Lohmann 2014)As a part of this, the organization can identify the opportunities
and then can implement changes. Changi Airport Group authorities realize the urgency of
change in their airport and spots opportunities for corporate culture and they have become a
brand in various countries of world. The next step is to convince the people that this change is
required to sustain in the aviation market and in case of Changi they became successful to
convince their associate partners as they believe the success of Changi Airport Group is
buried in the success of their partners. In the next step, the identify the values of their change
that is to provide the best services to the passengers at a low cost and in the next step of
Kotter’s changing management, Changi Airport Group authority identified that people
always try to maintain their status quo and that is the reason Changi Airport Group authority
provides services as per the requirement of the people and that is another reason of success of
Changi Airport. However, like other organization, during implementing changes, Changi
Airport Group authorities also faced a few challenges like a huge amount of passenger rushes
during the development period. The next step of this Kotter’s eight changes model is to
create short term winnings so that all the stakeholders can be hopeful about the changes

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(Castro and Lohmann 2014). As a part of this, it is observed Changi Airport Group various
retail offerings as reward to their passengers so that they can be interested about the changes
that are implemented and in addition to this they also take care about their brand partners.
The Changi Airport Group authority, also provide more space to the retail shops so that more
Changi Airport Group brands can have shop in the airport area. The last step of Kotter’s eight
step model is to back the changes in every conditions and as a result of their innovative
changes, Changi Airport Group has won the best airport award for six consecutive years and
till the establishment of changes they have won several awards from various organizations
(channelnewsasia.com 2018).
Recommendation and Conclusion
As a recommendation it can be said that, the sky train services of Changi Airport
Group airport is available for a particular time period and apart from that time passengers
cannot use that service. So, it will be more passenger friendly if they provide this service for
24*7 basis. In addition to this, due to immense pressure of passengers they may try to finish
their work for terminal 5 before the identified timeline so that they can manage this immense
pressure in a well manner (channelnewsasia.com, 2019). Therefore, it can be concluded
that, the Changi Airport Group authority has handled the changes in a well manner and they
are preferring the choices of customers in order to maintain their good market value and
reputation.

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