Changi in Singapore or Daxing in China – which is Asia’s best airport?
Boasting an Apple store, more than 300 retail and dining outlets, its new Jewel complex, an IMAX cinema and more, Singapore’s Changi was the leader, but can China’s Daxing, with its luxury brands and similar dining and shopping offers, beat it?
At the end of September, China’s flagship, Daxing International Airport, opened in Beijing. It boasts the world’s largest free-standing terminal and is expected to become the world’s busiest. It will welcome some 5 million passengers next year, a small fraction of the yearly 100 million expected by 2040.
So with Daxing’s loud ambition, could Changi face a new challenger to its crowning status? Here, we compare the two Asian hubs from various aspects.
Architecture
Changi’s Terminal 3 features a unique, multi-skylight roof designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Thirteen years after opening, Skytrax still ranks it as the world’s second best airport terminal. It has, of course, been eclipsed by Jewel, with its toroidal glass and steel dome designed by Moshe Safdie, who also did the city’s iconic Marina Bay Sands. Envisioned as a marketplace and urban park, at night the glowing lights interweaving the nine thousand glass panels of its facade can be seen from all around.
Daxing’s new terminal has been nicknamed “the starfish” because of its radial layout, which minimises walking distances to departure gates. The late Zaha Hadid, who designed it, described it as a phoenix. Hong Kong-based studio Lead 8 planned the interiors. With a floor space of a million square metres, it’s nearly twice as big as Chek Lap Kok’s Terminal 1. It’s also the world’s first airport to be designed with double-deck arrival and double-deck departure platforms.
Retail and dining