Why Changi Airport Keeps Winning the World's Best Title

Imagine you have just landed after a long flight, tired and ready for the usual airport problems: slow immigrationimmigration: The action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country. — 移民；入境, long queuesqueue: A line of people, vehicles or other objects, in which one at the front end is dealt with first, the one behind is dealt with next, and so on, and which newcomers join at the opposite end (the back) — 队伍, and an eveneven: Exactly, just, fully — 正好 longer wait for your bag. At Singapore's Changi Airport, none of this happens. Smart cleaning robots glideglide: To move softly, smoothly, or effortlessly — 平滑移动 across spotless floors, and immigration takes only a few minutes. In less than a quarter of an hour, you are already outside in the warm tropicaltropical: Relating to or typical of the tropics; very hot and humid. — 热带的；酷热的 air.

A few days later, you wait for your return flight in a building that has a free 24-hour cinema, a butterfly garden, and the world's tallest indoor waterfall. You can even walk over a glass fishpondfishpond: A freshwater pond stocked with fish; especially one formerly attached to a monastery etc as a source of food — 鱼塘 covered by a digital ceiling that copies the weather outside. At times the place feels less like an airport and more like a small, well-run city.

This may sound impossible, but Changi has just won the Skytrax Award for World's Best Airport for the second year in a row, and 14 times in total. While other major airports deal with pestspest: An animal regarded as a nuisance, destructive, or a parasite, vermin — 害虫害兽, strikesstrike: A blow or application of physical force against something — 袭击, and broken ceilings, Changi feels a world aparta world apart: completely different from everything else; in a class of its own — 天差地别；不可同日而语.

According to Max Hirsh, who runs Airport City Academy, Changi's success is not really about luxury but about getting the basics right: speed, safety, connections, and the flexibilityflexibility: The ability to adapt or be adapted easily to different conditions or circumstances — 灵活性；弹性；适应性 to react when problems appear. The challenge, Hirsh says, isn't doing this once; it's keeping it up for decadesdecades: A group, set, or series of ten , particularly: — 十年（复数）, even when technology and demanddemand: An insistent request; the desire of consumers for a particular product or service. — 需求；要求 keep changing.

If you have flown through Singapore, you may have noticed how calm the airport feels, but you probably did not see the careful planning behind that calm. Automationautomation: The act or process of converting the controlling of a machine or device to a more automatic system, such as computer or electronic controls — 自动化, biometricbiometric: Of, pertaining to or using biometrics — 生物识别的 scannersscanner: A device which scans documents in order to convert them to a digital medium — 扫描仪, and predictivepredictive: Useful in predicting — 预测性的 analyticspredictive analytics: using past data to predict what will happen next — 预测性数据分析 remove problems before passengers notice them, while 60,000 staff keep bags, cleaning, energy, and crowd flow movingmoving: Producing strong feelings of emotion, especially sadness or sympathy. — 感人的；动人的 smoothly.

The same care extendsextend: To make larger or longer in space or time; to offer or provide. — 延伸；延长；提供 to less exciting details, such as the back-end groundworkgroundwork: The foundation; the basic or fundamental parts that support or allow for the rest — 基础工作back-end groundwork: the unseen, behind-the-scenes preparation that makes a system run smoothly — 幕后基础工作 of clear signs and good crowd control that prevents tired travellers from wasting energy on finding their gate. Even the 500 toilets are part of the system: each has a touchscreentouchscreen: An input/output device that allows the user to interact with the computer by touching the display screen — 触摸屏 so passengers can rate it, and if scores drop, a cleaning team arrives within minutes. As Hirsh puts it, efficiencyefficiency: The quality of achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or resources. — 效率；效能 comes first, atmosphere second, and spectaclespectacle: An exciting or extraordinary scene, exhibition, performance etc — 精彩的表演 third.

Changi has so many features that one visit is not enough to see them all. Travellers can watch Toni, a robot bartenderbartender: One who tends a bar or pub; a person preparing and serving drinks at a bar — 酒保, mixing cocktailscocktail: A mixed alcoholic drink; a mixture of different substances or elements, often with dangerous or unpredictable effects. — 鸡尾酒；混合物, while the butterfly garden brings in new pupaepupae: An insect in the development stage between larva and adult — 蛹 every few weeks. There are also cactus and sunflower gardens, plus a new Fit and Fun Zone filled with trampolines and punching bags. These attractions are not only fun: by spreading visitors out, they help draw foot trafficfoot traffic: the flow of people walking through a place — 人流量 away from busy areas, so the airport never feels crowded.

Some of this efficiency comes from necessitynecessity: The state of being required or indispensable; an essential thing. — 必要性；必需品, since Singapore's labour constraintsconstraint: A limitation or restriction; something that controls what you are able to do. — 限制；约束；制约因素labour constraints: limits on how many workers a country has available to hire — 劳动力短缺约束 have pushed Changi to automateautomate: To replace or enhance human labor with machines — 使自动化 many services, from immigration to cleaning. "Immigration needs a lot of staff, and not all Singaporeans want this kind of work," explained Ivan Tan, a seniorsenior: Of a higher rank or longer service; relating to older people. — 高级的；资深的；年长的 manager at Changi Airport Group. "So in part, the airport is driven by need."

In 2024, Changi became the first airport to roll out fullyfully: Completely or entirely; to the greatest possible extent. — 完全地；充分地 passport-less immigration, using face and irisiris: The contractile membrane perforated by the pupil, which adjusts to control the amount of light reaching the retina, and which forms the colored portion of the eye (See Iris (anatomy)) — 虹膜 scans to speed up one of travel's most annoying steps. This practical mindsetmindset: A way of thinking; an attitude or opinion, especially a habitual one — 思维方式 also explains why the airport set up Terminal X, an innovationinnovation: The introduction of something new; a new idea, method, or device — 创新；革新 labinnovation lab: a research team set up inside an organisation to test new ideas — 创新实验室 that works on weather volatilityvolatility: The state of being volatile — 不稳定性weather volatility: how unpredictable and changeable the weather is — 天气剧烈波动, staff shortagesshortage: A state in which there is not enough of something that is needed. — 短缺；不足, capacitycapacity: The maximum amount that something can contain or produce; ability or power to do something — 容量；能力 pressurecapacity pressure: the strain of running close to or beyond a system's maximum size — 容量压力, and changing customer expectationsexpectation: A strong belief that something will happen or be the case. — 期望；预期. Changi, it seems, is never allowed to sit still.