Budget 2025: $5 billion added to fund for airport expansion projects, including Changi’s T5

SINGAPORE – Some $5 billion will be added to a fund that was set up to support the expansion of Changi Airport, including the construction of Terminal 5, Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said in his Budget speech in Parliament on Feb 18.

Adding to the Changi Airport Development Fund’s (CADF) kitty will “ensure sufficient resources to develop our air hub” and secure Singapore’s standing as “a critical gateway for travel and trade”, PM Wong said.

The Government – with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s concurrence – will also provide a guarantee to operator Changi Airport Group. “This will help lower the cost of borrowings needed to develop Terminal 5 and supporting infrastructure in Changi East,” PM Wong said.

Terminal 5 (T5) will be

located within the new 1,080ha Changi East development

, which is Changi Airport’s largest expansion project to date that will be three times the size of Marina Bay.

“We will break ground for Changi Airport Terminal 5 in the coming months,” PM Wong said, adding that, when completed, T5 will expand the airport’s capacity by more than 50 per cent.

Construction of the mega terminal

will start in the first half of 2025,

PM Wong had said in September 2024. T5 is expected to open in the mid-2030s and will be able to handle up to 50 million passengers a year, on top of Changi Airport’s current capacity of 90 million.

The Government put $3 billion into the CADF in 2015, the year it was set up. It added another $1 billion in 2016, and $2 billion in 2023.

Including the $5 billion announced on Feb 18, the Government will have put $11 billion into the CADF since 2015.

How long the money will last “depends on construction timelines”, the Finance Ministry said.

In response to queries from The Straits Times, the ministry said the plan is to continue topping up the fund when the Government’s budget allows.

To sustain Singapore’s position as a hub economy, the country must ensure connectivity with the rest of the world, both physically and digitally, said PM Wong.

In this regard, it must invest in world-class infrastructure and find innovative ways to overcome its resource constraints, he added.

PM Wong said development of the Tuas Port is progressing well.

It is

being developed in four phases

and will be the world’s largest fully automated port when completed in the 2040s.

Singapore’s port registered a

new record of 3.11 billion gross tons in arriving ship traffic in 2024.

Annual vessel arrival tonnage – or the internal volume of all ships that arrive in a year, including their engine room and non-cargo spaces – is a common maritime industry measure of vessel traffic calling at a port.

In 2024, the port also handled an all-time high of 41.12 million shipping containers, or twenty-foot equivalent units.

The world’s second-busiest container port after Shanghai, Singapore’s port also achieved new records in other categories, including the sale of bunker fuels and biofuel blends, as well as the total tonnage of Singapore-registered ships.

“This reinforces our role as a leading maritime hub,” PM Wong said.

Singapore has also achieved islandwide 5G wireless technology coverage, and is upgrading the Nationwide Broadband Network to deliver speeds up to 10 times faster.

“This will enhance digital connectivity for businesses and individuals,” PM Wong added.