Changi Airport’s Terminal 4 is officially open for business.

The terminal welcomed passengers from Cathay Pacific’s flight CX659 from Hong Kong last week — the first flight to arrive at the new terminal. Cathay Pacific and Korean Air were the first two of nine airlines to operate out of T4, followed shortly after by Cebu Pacific, Spring Airlines, AirAsia Group and Vietnam Airlines.

“After five years in the making, we are very happy to commence operations at T4. The new terminal will increase Changi Airport’s capacity by another 16 million passenger movements per annum, bringing the total to 82 mppa. T4 is expected to handle about eight million passenger movements in its first year of operation. More importantly, we are now able to deliver an even better travel experience to Changi’s passengers,” said Tan Lye Teck, executive vice president for airport management, Changi Airport Group.

The new terminal offers a new Fast and Seamless Travel self-service option for check-in, bag drop, immigration and boarding; and 81 new shops and restaurants, 62 of which are popular retail and service outlets, and 19 food and beverage outlets.

The new Cosmetics and Perfumes and Liquor and Tobacco stores operated by The Shilla Duty Free and DFS allows passengers to pay for their items from the two stores in a single transaction.

The new terminal also features unique art displays and immersive LED walls. One of the main attractions is the Heritage Zone, with its façades of old Singapore shop houses, as well as the row of food and beverage outlets exuding nostalgia with local fare and old-school furnishings.

“Our commercial team has paid attention to bringing in innovative concepts and new experiences for passengers spanning a range of categories, from the live cooking stations for prata and BBQ pork, to the sampling of cocktail mixes and the test-flying of drones,” said Teo Chew Hoon, senior vice president for airside concessions, Changi Airport Group.