Travellers at Changi Airport will have to watch the
clock if they do not want to miss their flights.
From Jan 1, there will no longer be final call
announcements for passengers to head to their boarding gates.
Airlines will also stop paging for specific passengers.
Only essential announcements will be made including
those pertaining to emergencies, lost and found children and
passports, flight delays, gate changes and belt changes.
Changi Airport Group (CAG) said that the cessation of
certain announcements will help ensure that passengers and visitors
will pay attention as and when announcements are made.
It will also make Changi a more pleasant and quiet
airport, with the number of announcements set to be halved with the
new initiative.
"With more flights and passengers, maintaining the
present frequency of announcements will mean noisier terminals and
more interruptions in time to come. One concern is that passengers
may pay less attention to the announcements made over the public
address system, crowding out the more critical announcements," said
CAG spokesman Ivan Tan.
Currently, each terminal sees an average of one
announcement made about every five minutes, he said.
In 2014 when the airport asked airlines to either make
a final call for boarding or page for passengers - instead of doing
both - there was no observable impact on the number passengers
showing up late for their flights, Mr Tan said.
Commenting on the latest initiative, Jetstar Group
spokesman Robin Goh said: "Final boarding announcements and paging
for late passengers serve as final reminders to all passengers and,
hence, they help contribute to the on-time performance of airlines
and Changi Airport."
While many other major international airports have
started adopting this "silent airport" trend, "it will impact all
airlines operating out of Changi Airport and their passengers", he
said.
In Hong Kong, there are no final call or boarding
announcements and name paging is done only for special reasons.
At Hamad International Airport in Doha, only security,
generic boarding and prayer calls are made. These are automatically
scheduled by the announcement system.
At Brussels Airport, only emergency announcements are
made.
To prepare for the change, CAG has requested all
airlines to emphasise the boarding time to their passengers when
they check in for their flights and to advise them to be at the
gate on time.
Messages will also be displayed on the various flight
information display screens, Changi Airport website and iChangi app
to inform passengers of the cessation of the final calls.
Changi Airport has more than 600 analogue and digital
clocks in both the public and transit areas in all four terminals
for passengers' easy reference, Mr Tan said.
"Passengers are advised to plan ahead and be at the
boarding gates on time for a stress-free journey," he added.
ST