Making a stopover (in the Covid era) in Singapore at what used to be the best airport in the world

Singapore Changi has been voted the world's best airport eight consecutive times; before the pandemic, nearly 70 million passengers a year passed through the Singapore Airlines hub. Then came Covid-19 and restrictions, and the airport, partly because of the strict measures in place, lost its title as the world's best airport.

In these 18 months the city-state of Singapore has had one of the strictest approaches, borders closed to everyone from the start. The bubble with neighboring Hong Kong has burst twice, always before leaving.

In the spring, the project called Connect@Changi, a way for local companies to physically meet with global partners. In fact, a bubble has been created inside the fair, where meetings can be held behind glass walls. You see each other, but you don't touch each other, and most importantly, you don't breathe the same air.

Now Singapore seems to have made a decision, it is moving toward reopening because - the government says - we will have to learn to live with Covid.

In the meantime, however, Singapore airport continues to operate as a hub, so it is possible to stopover and depart on a connecting flight. This means that the ticket must include the entire itinerary; you cannot, for example, travel to Singapore on one ticket and depart on a different ticket. The reason is simple: there is a bubble at the airport and you cannot, of course, escape.

The arrival in Singapore

On a Singapore Airlines flight from Amsterdam, I arrived in the former British colony, where a connection to Phuket awaited me. Once the A350 door opened, we were greeted by PPI-protected staff.

Here we were divided into groups according to final destination and nationality, each passenger was made to wear a bracelet with a different color, depending on which one was assigned we had to stand in a different queue:

• All passengers who continued the journey had a green-colored bracelet
• Passengers, non-residents, who stopped in Singapore were provided with a blue-colored wristband
• Instead, Singaporean residents bound for Singapore were sent directly to customs control.

The transfer from the gate to the waiting area

The other passengers who, like me, had a connecting flight were then escorted, indeed escorted, to a deserted airport to take the people mover to the terminal area, where all transit travelers wait for the time to go to the boarding gate for their next flight.

Once you get off the train, you are put in line and then go through document and temperature check,one at a time.

The waiting area

All passengers wait for their flights in this terminal aera, plenty of seats with adequate spacing available.

A small kiosk to buy some drinks and snacks.

A small, accessible play area for children. Ability to order food via app and pay by credit card by choosing from a range of offerings that are delivered to a designated area in the terminal.

The premium waiting area

Traveling in business on my ticket it said that I could use the premium waiting area. In the airport, in fact, you cannot move around freely, much less have open lounges. If you have a lot of time between flights, you can stay overnight in one of the two hotels inside the airport, but fortunately mine was what, in technical jargon, is called a "short connection."

Even to access the Air Premium, which is nothing more than a gate converted into a lounge, the temperature is measured and the ticket is checked. Of course, it is not accessible with Priority Pass or similar cards.

Inside this phantom vip lounge, just armchairs and sofas and a QR on the coffee table that allows people to order drinks and snacks that are not delivered to the table, but are announced over the microphone-the traveler must go to the back of the room to pick up the ordered items.

From the waiting area to the departure gate

The "paramilitary" organization shows some signs of breaking down when my flight SQ276, one of the two daily connections Singapore has with Phuket, is called. The flight was practically full, so there were a lot of people queuing at the checkpoint to leave the waiting area and head for the gate.

The attendants had a hard time keeping the passengers in line, partly because they had to check IDs and temperature to leave the area, the third time within 30 minutes.

In conclusion

The strict rules in the city have been replicated at the airport as well. Unlike what has been happening for months in other airports such as Dubai, London and almost everywhere else in the world, where airports are open for all passengers, services included, here they try to keep everything under control. The crazy thing then is that you end up all "boxed in" inside a plane more or less full of people.