Down but not out; Changi Airport will soar again

A COPY of a 1948 Malaya Tribune article titled "Changi to be world's best airport" was sent to me recently. The Colonial Government had announced the "new Changi Airport" in April 1946. Wow, the British got it right even back in 1946! (which happens to be the year I was born). They harboured the ambition to make Changi the best airport in the world 74 years ago, even though that first runway was initially for military use by the Royal Air Force.

Even further back in 1931, when Sir Cecil Clementi, the British Governor of the Straits Settlements (ie Singapore, Malacca, Penang and Labuan) launched the building of a civilian airport at Kallang, he postulated, "Looking into the future, I expect to see Singapore become one of the largest and most important airports of the world".

Kallang Airport operated from 1937 to 1955, before the civilian airport was shifted to Paya Lebar. As aviation grew rapidly in the early 1970s, the plan was to expand Paya Lebar with a second runway and a new international passenger building. I was posted from the Ministry of Defence to the Public Works Department (PWD) Airport Branch in Paya Lebar in 1974 and worked on the second runway project. Construction had already started in 1972 and was progressing until Mr Lee Kuan Yew (then Prime Minister) flew over Boston Airport which was built by the sea. He realised the constraints of expanding the airport at an inland location like Paya Lebar and made the bold decision in 1975 to resite a new airport at Changi. That dramatically changed Singapore's aviation history.