Page 18 - AAA JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2012 Online Magazine

Singapore

• Amenities for staff and crew
• Business aviation – A park environment
catering to well-heeled travellers aug-
mented with fuss-free, business-friendly
immigration and airport processes
• Regional aerospace campus – Dedi-
cated space for campus facilities and
dormitories which will be integrated
with the industrial park to facilitate
company collaborations
• Airport – Designed to support indus-
trial and business aviation activities,
the airport will be instrument approach
enabled with a 1800m runway, aircraft
parking bays and engine run-up bay.
The completion of the airport’s new
control tower in January this year
marks another milestone in the SAP’s
development, Following the completion
of the runway extension in September
last year. Lui Tuck Yew, Minister for
Transport and Second Minister for For-
eign Affairs, officially commissioned
the new control tower and extended
runway at a ceremony jointly organised
by the Civil Aviation Authority of Sin-
gapore (CAAS) and Changi Airport
Group (CAG) at Seletar Airport.
Speaking at the event, Lui noted that
Seletar has embarked on a major up-
grading programme since the end of
2008, of which the new control tower is
just one element.
“The SAP has successfully com-
pleted its Phase 1 and 2 development
[in the fourth quarter of 2011]. In order
to keep pace with the strong demand
from the aerospace industry. JTC Cor-
light aircraft companies that set up in Seletar can poration [the government agency de-
• Business & general aviation activities reap the benefits of business infrastruc- veloping the park] will be embarking
• Regional aviation campus, which ture and the synergies on offer. These on the third and final phase of devel-
will house a leading aeronautical uni- benefits include economies of scale, in- opment this year. I hope to see more
versity, training institutes and research creased efficiency and opportunity for companies setting up their operations
facilities new industry collaborations through here to capitalise on the synergies and
When fully completed, the park is the shared infrastructure, close prox- economies of scale provided by an inte-
expected to contribute an estimated imity of suppliers, customers and part- grated aerospace cluster.”
S$3.3 billion to the Singapore economy ners within a tightly-knit aerospace Lui noted that the extension of the
and cater for 10,000 skilled jobs. To put business community. runway by 250m to 1,836m will bring
that into context, in 2010 the aerospace The park has also been designed to benefits. “In the past, Seletar Airport
industry was worth S$7.2 billion to Sin- offer high flexibility and optimisation was only able to accommodate small
gapore, so Seletar will be worth nearly of space, including; narrow-body aircraft like the Airbus
half that total (which is expected to • Plug-and-play environment – Provi- A319 and A320. “The longer runway
grow to S$9.3 billion by 2015. sion for power, water and telecommu- will support larger jets like the Boeing
The idea behind the park is that nications 757 and Gulfstream 650,” notes Lui.

18 ASIAN AIRLINES & AIRPORTS January/February 2012 www.AsianAirlines-Airports.com