Last month, we reported that Changi in Singapore was declared the best airport for 2026 by the Skytrax ranking and AirlineRatings. This is the 14th time the airport has received this honor. Changi is known, among other things, for a spectacular complex featuring a 40-meter-high indoor waterfall. This complex, in which a “tropical forest” is planted, was designed by Israeli-American-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie.
Why did Changi win first place? Aside from the spectacular design, there are many other reasons that helped it surpass its competitors, among them autonomous floor-cleaning robots based on artificial intelligence that keep the floors shining at all times, and border control that operates at a suspiciously fast pace (within less than 15 minutes from landing, you will already find yourself outside the airport).
The takeoff experience from the airport is also exceptional: Smooth check-in, fast queues, and waiting for flights in halls that include a free cinema operating 24/7, a butterfly garden, and a breathtaking indoor artificial waterfall. There is even an indoor glass fish pond you can walk over, with a digital roof display that reflects the weather outside.
It may sound like a futuristic dream of the perfect flying experience, but at Changi Airport the dream has become reality. While major airport terminals around the world deal with rodent problems, recurring strikes by operational staff, and collapsing ceilings, Changi’s futuristic calm feels like a different world. The gap between an average airport and a world-class airport has never felt greater. So what does it take to make travel run so smoothly, and how does Singapore manage to succeed again and again while its competitors struggle?
Efficiency first, show afterwards
For Max Hirsch, CEO of Airport City Academy, a research center focused on airport planning and development, Changi’s success does not come only from quality, but from strict attention to everyday fundamentals, speed, safety, and connectivity. It is also about the flexibility to adapt to changes and unexpected events. “In aviation, this happens a lot,” Hirsch told CNN. “The challenge is not achieving this balance once, but maintaining it over decades in the face of changing demands, technologies, and disruptions. Changi succeeds because it treats this balance as an ongoing project, not a one-time achievement.”
The calm that accompanies the airport is carefully engineered. Behind the scenes, a vast and highly coordinated system operates in which automation, biometrics, and data analysis are used to remove bottlenecks before they become visible, unlike many other airports where long queues are not surprising. Sixty thousand employees ensure that baggage handling, cleaning, and passenger flow operate together in harmony. As Hirsch puts it, Changi often feels “one step ahead of you.”
The same approach applies to the less glamorous details. Back-of-house infrastructure such as intuitive navigation, clear signage, and crowd management ensures that tired passengers do not waste energy just trying to find their departure gate. Even the 500 restroom facilities spread across the terminals contribute to efficiency: Each one includes a digital touch screen that allows passengers to rate their experience, with every drop in rating triggering a cleaning team within minutes. “The hierarchy is simple,” Hirsch says, “efficiency first, atmosphere second, spectacle third.”
There is no shortage of things to do
Changi offers so much that it sometimes takes several visits to experience everything. The best-known example is Jewel Rain Vortex, the indoor waterfall in the shopping complex connected to the airport terminals, which has become one of Singapore’s most famous tourist attractions.
Passengers can also watch Tony, Changi’s robotic bartender, mix a variety of cocktails in Terminals 2 and 3. Another attraction is the butterfly garden, which imports new pupae every two to three weeks to ensure it is constantly full. If flying insects are not to your taste, there is also a cactus garden and a rooftop sunflower garden. In addition, there is a new area called Fit and Fun Zone, which opened in early 2025 and is full of activities for every mood, from punching bags to small trampolines. For those with a long enough layover (and no visa requirement), the airport even offers free guided city tours.
But the evolving attractions are not only meant to entertain passengers after a long journey, they serve a more practical purpose: They encourage people to explore different areas, thereby dispersing passenger traffic throughout the terminal and helping to prevent the sense of overcrowding typical of other airports.
Easy to enter, easy to exit
Part of the airport’s efficiency stems from pragmatism no less than ambition. Workforce limitations in Singapore have pushed the airport toward automation, from border control to cleaning and passenger services.
“Immigration services require a lot of manpower, and not all Singaporeans are willing to do such work,” explained Ivan Tan, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Marketing at Changi Airport Group. “So to some extent, we are driven by necessity.”
In 2024, Changi became the first airport to fully implement passport-free border crossing, using biometric facial and iris recognition to shorten one of the most frustrating stages of any international trip. Singapore residents can use this both when entering and exiting the country, while foreign passengers can use passport-free clearance only when departing Singapore.
The passport-free biometric system was fully implemented across Changi’s terminals at the end of 2024, helping to reduce processing time for many passengers.
The same practical approach also explains why Changi is constantly looking for ways to improve efficiency. Airports are essentially “tiny cities” driven by tight schedules and complex logistics, and every small change has wide-ranging consequences. This is one of the reasons Changi recently established “Terminal X”, an innovation lab designed to tackle weather volatility, staffing issues, congestion, and changing customer expectations.
“For us, the innovation center is a necessity,” says Chris Mook, the lab’s communications director, adding that the constantly shifting set of challenges means that “in a few years we will need to work twice as hard.”
The team is encouraged to test unconventional ideas even if they fail, an unusual approach in Singapore’s relatively cautious work culture. Among the lab’s projects is a fleet of drones that hover during storms to deter lightning strikes on the ground that could shut down runways, since Singapore is one of the countries with the highest lightning frequency in the world.
Changi represents the story of Singapore itself
Changi’s obsession with efficiency is not new in Singapore. In the 1970s, the nation’s founding father and first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, decided that in order to grow, the small trade-dependent country needed a welcoming “symbol” of efficiency. It was a costly gamble, but it succeeded. He would later call Changi “the best investment of 1.5 billion Singapore dollars we ever made.”
Half a century later, the investment is still paying off. “Changi is like Singapore: Efficient, clean, organized, and you can trust that everything works as expected,” says Alicia Rodrigo, who lives in Singapore and frequently flies from the airport.
Efficiency, in the end, is why Changi continues to win. While the waterfall is what passengers remember, the real achievement is that they reach it quickly and without getting lost.