Changi Airport terminal shuffles for Vietnam Airlines and Etihad

Earlier this month we reported on the upcoming terminal move at Singapore Changi Airport for All Nippon Airways, with the Star Alliance carrier relocating back to its usual Terminal 2 home from early October 2023, as that facility moves towards a full reopening later the same month.

Now there’s news of two more operators making a terminal shift, with Vietnam Airlines trading its longstanding Terminal 4 slot in favour of a move to Terminal 3 from 26th September 2023 and Etihad Airways returning to Terminal 2 the following week, from 5th October 2023.

The rebalancing act is unlikely to be the last we see in the coming months, as Terminal 2’s full reopening will give it the highest capacity of any facility at the airport.

Vietnam Airlines T4 to T3

Effective from 26th September 2023, Vietnam Airlines will be moving out of Terminal 4 and operating to and from Terminal 3 at Changi Airport.

This one is a little unexpected – Vietnam Airlines was one of the first carriers to move to Terminal 4 when it originally opened, shifting from T3 to the brand new terminal on 7th November 2017.

The airline temporarily ceased Singapore flights from March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but returned to Changi in 2021, operating under Singapore’s Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) programme three days per week to and from Hanoi and four times per week to and from Ho Chi Minh.

These flights used Terminal 3 at Changi Airport, due to the temporary closure of Terminal 4, however the airline moved back to T4 a week after its reopening – on 22nd September 2022.

This move will see the number of full-service carriers operating at Terminal 4 reduce from four to three, with only Cathay Pacific, Korean Air and Juneyao Air falling into this category from 26th September 2023.

T4’s seven other airlines are low-cost carriers, including AirAsia and Jetstar.

Once Vietnam Airlines moves out, Changi Airport Terminal 4 will continue to see 581 weekly flight departures, as shown below.

Changi T4 Airlines
(from 26 September 2023)

Airline		Weekly departures	Destinations
	AirAsia (AK, FD, QZ)	295	15
	Bamboo Airways (QH)	7	1
	Cathay Pacific (CX)	35	1
	Cebu Pacific (5J)	26	3
	Jeju Air (7C)	6	1
	Jetstar (3K, JQ)	124	11
	Juneyao Air (HO)	14	1
	Korean Air (KE)	21	1
	Pacific Airlines (BL)	4	1
	VietJet (VJ, VZ)	49	4

Changi Terminal 4 is currently operating at around two-thirds of its annual 16 million passenger capacity, so there is room for existing carriers to expand, or for some new airlines to establish operations there or move across from existing terminals.

Vietnam Airlines currently operates 35 arrivals and departures per week at Changi, 14 per week to and from Hanoi and 21 per week to and from Ho Chi Minh, using Airbus A321 aircraft, as shown in the schedule below.

Vietnam Airlines
Singapore Hanoi / Ho Chi Minh

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	VN660 A321		Daily
SIN 13:05		HAN 15:40
	VN650 A321		Daily
SIN 13:10		SGN 14:40
	VN662 A321		Daily
SIN 15:50		HAN 18:30
	VN654 A321		Daily
SIN 18:25		SGN 19:55
	VN656 A321		Daily
SIN 20:45		SGN 22:15

Vietnam Airlines
Hanoi / Ho Chi Minh Singapore

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	VN661 A321		Daily
HAN 07:40		SIN 11:55
	VN651 A321		Daily
SGN 09:05		SIN 12:10
	VN663 A321		Daily
HAN 10:35		SIN 14:50
	VN655 A321		Daily
SGN 14:10		SIN 17:25
	VN657 A321		Daily
SGN 16:05		SIN 19:15

The final Vietnam Airlines departure from Terminal 4 will be VN656 to Ho Chi Minh at 8.45pm on 25th September 2023. Subsequently, all the carrier’s arrivals and departures at Changi will be processed through Terminal 3.

Eligible LotuSmiles Gold and Platinum members and Business Class passengers will be directed to use the SATS Premier Lounge in T3.

Vietnam Airlines’ low-cost subsidiary Pacific Airlines (formerly Jetstar Pacific) will continue to operate four times weekly Singapore – Ho Chi Minh flights to and from Terminal 4, including Vietnam Airlines codeshare service.

Luckily the five daily Vietnam Airlines flights at Changi fall mostly outside Terminal 3’s peak periods, which we recently identified means around 10 Singapore Airlines T3 flights need to use Terminal 1 gates each day.

Only the VN657/656 service operates at a peak timing, occupying a gate from 7.15pm to 8.45pm, but luckily a similarly-timed Etihad T3 departure will be relocating to a different terminal just a week later.

Etihad Airways T3 to T2

From 5th October 2023, Middle East carrier Etihad Airways will relocate its daily Singapore – Abu Dhabi flight from Terminal 3 back to the airline’s former home at Changi in Terminal 2, the same day that All Nippon Airways makes a T1 > T2 switch.

Here’s how Etihad’s Changi Airport schedule looks.

Etihad Airways
Singapore Abu Dhabi

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	EY473 787-10		Daily
SIN 20:00		AUH 23:10

Etihad Airways
Abu Dhabi Singapore

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	EY470 787-10		Daily
AUH 22:15		SIN 09:55*

* Next day

The final Etihad Airways flight to arrive into Terminal 3 will be EY470 from Abu Dhabi at 9.55am on 4th October 2023, with the final T3 departure that same evening as EY473 to Abu Dhabi at 8pm.

From EY470’s arrival on 5th October 2023 onwards, Terminal 2 will be used to process all arriving and departing Etihad flights at the airport.

Eligible passengers departing on Etihad flights will be invited to the SATS Premier Lounge in Terminal 2.

Etihad will be the 14th airline to operate from Terminal 2 following its post-COVID-19 reopening, joining recent additions like Ethiopian Airlines, Malaysia Airlines and United Airlines.

Here’s how the operator list looks as of 5th October 2023, in order of commencing operations at the reopened terminal following it’s two-year closure.

All Changi Airport T2 Airlines
(from 5 October 2023)

Airline		Started T2 Operations*	Weekly Departures
	Singapore Airlines (SQ) Only South East Asia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka departures	13 October 2022	385
	Air India (AI)	18 October 2022	28
	Air India Express (IX)		13
	Royal Brunei Airlines (BI)	6 February 2023	9
	Lufthansa (LH)	9 February 2023	12
	Swiss International Air Lines (LX)		7
	Sichuan Airlines (3U)	17 February 2023	7
	Air Macau (NX)	23 March 2023	5
	Ethiopian Airlines (ET)	26 March 2023	8
	Firefly (FY)		14
	Malaysia Airlines (MH)	23 May 2023	70
	United Airlines (UA)	20 July 2023	14
	All Nippon Airways (NH)	5 October 2023	21
	Etihad Airways (EY)	5 October 2023	7

* Post T2’s COVID closure

The only former T2 airline still operating from another terminal at Changi after 5th October 2023 will be IndiGo (6E), with 51 weekly arrivals and departures currently processed through Terminal 1.

As Terminal 2 at Changi readies for a full reopening next month, two more airlines are shifting their operations to alternative facilities at the airport in the weeks ahead.

Surprisingly, this includes a return for Vietnam Airlines to Terminal 3 for the first time in nearly six years, apart from the period the airline had to operate there during T4’s temporary closure during the pandemic.

The following week, Etihad will move back to its usual Terminal 2 home, with its single daily flight to Abu Dhabi shifting across on the same day ANA returns to T2.

(Cover Photo: Hafit Irawan / Shutterstock)