Best airport in the world is on a different plane to the competition

Changi Airport in Singapore is the Ant and Dec of the aviation world.

In March, it was awarded the title of the World’s Best Airport for the 12th time since the turn of the century, regaining the crown after Doha’s Hamad upstaged it in 2021 and 2022. In total, it has won more than 620 awards.

Situated at the eastern end of Singapore, about 15 miles from downtown, Changi opened in 1981 and has grown rapidly to encompass four terminals with a fifth (bigger than the other four put together) planned to open in 2030, along with a third runway. Pre-covid in 2019, it saw 68.3 million passengers, making it the seventh busiest in the world.

The must-see centrepiece – and the one which leaves tourists’ jaws dropping – is Jewel, the shopping centre built around a vast domed central atrium which boasts the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, the Rain Vortex.

This huge circular five-storey space known as the Shiseido Forest Valley, is a terraced setting of palm trees, climbing vegetation, tropical plants and trickling smaller waterfalls, all of which form a stepped green wall all around the atrium.

SPECTACULAR

Passing through this Eden is an elevated railway line carrying the airport Skytrain which links the terminals flanking Jewel.

The spectacular central Rain Vortex is 131ft high and allows 8,325 gallons of water a minute to cascade down from a hole in the roof into an acrylic funnel at the bottom which collects the water before recycling it.

As it slowly changes colour, the waterfall is a mesmeric attraction that could well lure you into missing your flight.

Opened in 2019 and linked directly to Terminal 1’s arrivals hall, Jewel also hosts more than 300 retail and dining outlets across 10 storeys, with the uppermost level, Canopy Park, featuring gardens and leisure facilities, including a paid-for kids’ entertainment world with play areas and two mazes. It’s therefore possible to leave your children to enjoy themselves while you go on a shopping spree downstairs.

Without doubt the central atrium puts Changi head and tailfin above other airports. Was it worth a detour? Well, it took supreme willpower to quit taking photos of the waterfall and drag myself to the Qantas gate for my flight back to the UK. changiairport.com