Singapore has opened a new "green" airport terminal, boasting energy-saving skylights, a butterfly garden and more than 200 species of foliage spread over enough floor space to cover 50 soccer fields.
The S$1.75 billion ($1.6 billion) terminal at state-owned Changi Airport has received its first passengers, who landedon a Singapore Airlines flight from San Francisco to a high-powered welcoming committee including government ministers.
The new terminal, Singapore's third, boosts Changi's total passenger capacity by around 45 per cent to 70 million, as airports throughout Asia expand to gear up for predictions of strong growth in regional travel.
Among the 28 aerobridge gates in the terminal are eight that are specially designed to handle the new Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger jet, the first of which is being flown by Singapore Airlines.
But booming air travel is seen by environmentalists as bad news for greenhouse emissions, with aviation likely to be a controversial topic in discussions run by the United Nations to choose a pact to follow the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
The terminal is designed to run on lower energy costs than the older terminals, mainly through natural lighting from the 919 skylights and positioning of air-conditioners nearer to floor-level.
"The cost to run the terminal should be lower. But it's still too early to project what the cost savings will be," said a spokesman from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, which manages the airport.
The terminal has a striking five-storey-high wall of hanging plants, a butterfly garden and carp ponds dotted amid its gleaming 380,000 sq m.
But for Australian traveller Dawn Massey, 51, stopping over with her husband on a flight back to Perth from Britain, the green features were barely noticeable.
"That's not something very important to us," said Massey. She was more impressed with the terminal's cleanliness and orderly signs.
"It's very reflective of Singapore, actually," she said. The city-state has long cultivated a reputation as a "garden city" and is also well-known for the cleanliness of its streets.
Singapore is competing against Hong Kong and Bangkok to be the region's top aviation hub.
