It will soon be less convenient for drivers to park and get into
Changi Airport's Terminal 1 (T1).
Drivers familiar with the terminal's open-air carpark with 850
spaces will find the area closed in the fourth quarter of this year
to make way for the construction of Project Jewel.
Changi Airport Group (CAG) said at a press briefing yesterday
that it has not set a date for the closure but it will test new
parking arrangements from Oct 17 to 21 before the permanent
closure.
Drivers will be directed to park at Terminal 2's (T2) Carpark
2B, which has 1,100 carpark spaces.
After dropping passengers off at T1's departure level, drivers
will have to make a slight detour, including a U-turn, to get to
this designated carpark.
They will then have to take the skytrain or board a free shuttle
bus, which runs every five to 15 minutes, to T1. The shuttle bus
trip takes about seven minutes.
This temporary carpark situation will last till 2018 when the
$1.47 billion Jewel is completed. The largely retail complex will
be built on the 3.5ha site where the open-air carpark is. It will
have an underground carpark with 2,500 spaces and a link to
terminals 1, 2 and 3, and Changi Airport MRT station.
CAG said that the occupancy rates of the existing T1 carpark
hits 85 per cent during peak hours and is about half-full during
off- peak hours. T1 served close to 18 million passengers last
year.
CAG said that it was doing a number of things to avoid a parking
crunch. This includes opening a new open-air carpark next to the
JetQuay terminal on Oct 14 and adding more spaces in the T2
carparks. This will add 400 spaces in total.
It is understood that even with these new additions there will
still be a shortfall of 400 spaces. Despite the decrease, CAG said
it felt the number of spaces would be sufficient to cater to
demand.
It will also free up even more spaces by discouraging drivers
rom parking their cars at the airport for extended periods of time.
The 24-hour parking fee cap of $20 for cars parked at the airport
will be removed. Drivers will
have to pay $57.60 for full-day parking.
"We have about 500 to 600 (drivers) who park and leave their
cars overnight at the airport, (sometimes) for weeks or days," said
Mr Lim Ming Koon, vice-president of CAG's T1 expansion programme.
He added that these drivers accounted for only 2 per cent of daily
carpark users but occupied 20 per cent of the space.
Motorists said they hoped
the new parking plans would not be overly confusing.
