New York v Singapore Airport: what do they say about their respective country brands

Singapore recently won the Best Airport In The World honour at the international Skytrax World Airport Awards in the passenger category. If there was an award for worst airport it would have to be New York. What Singapore does understand and New York does not understand is that an airport is like a brand’s packaging and design. The first impression of a country is its airport. It’s the gateway to all the other brand values of that country.

I realized this even more on a recent trip to New York and then coming back home to Singapore.

Contrast and compare New York’s JFK and what is says about America’s brand and Singapore’s Changi airport and what it says about the Singapore’s brand.

After a 20 hour flight from Singapore and arriving in New York I am met by a 2 hour wait just to get through immigration. There are 9 lengthy rows of visitors queued up and only 1 row of Americans lined up trying to get into the country and yet they both have 10 separate entry points. What made this worse was that there were plenty of officials sitting around in booths that could have been used to deal with people chatting to their fellow colleagues in full view of everyone queuing who are getting increasingly agitated.

Bearing in mind visitors must have had to go through either getting a visa or registering on the new visa waiver website before this point. Visitors still then have to have all their fingers and thumbs finger/thumb printed - from both hands. Then a photo is taken. Then you’re allowed in. By this time you’re luggage has been offloaded from the conveyer belt and if you’re lucky is still there. Then you queue up again to go through customs. At that point you have to find a cashpoint (one for the terminal), there are no shops, no cafes in the arrivals terminal. Then you have to find your rental car (you have to take 2 more trains to find it), then you have to escape New York….slowly. It took 3 hours to get out of New York through the snail like traffic.

After a 20 hour flight from New York and arriving in Singapore I am greeted by no queue’s, dozens of entry points (for everyone, there is no separation of visitors/residents) as well as electronic unmanned arrivals points for residents and employment pass holders (amazing invention which very few other airports use). I have entered Singapore from airplane to luggage collection in 4 minutes. I am greeted by open shops, restaurants, cashpoints and rental car outlets as well as a convenient taxi rank.

Checking in at Singapore airport takes minutes and your bags are whisked on their way for you. Checking in at New York airport takes minutes and then you’re told you must take your own bags to a secondary point where you queue up for 30 minutes while the officials put all your bags through a security device very slowly. Well one of them was doing this while 5 sat around behind the security screen and chatted to each other in full view of the queue. Bearing in mind most New Yorkers appear to be 10 times the size of a typical Singaporean and move 10 times slower you can imagine how long this process took.

Once in departures waiting at Singapore airport is a pleasure. Once in departures waiting at New York airport is a bore. There is everything at Singapore airport you could wish for, open shops, food courts, restaurants, cafes, information venues, wi-fi. There is nothing at New York departures. A smattering of tacky souvenir shops, no cafes, no restaurants, no wi-fi, one closed bar, one shop selling drinks but no tea, one convenience shop that didn’t take a card and nothing else.

So which of these airports accentuates their respective country brand? Which one communicates positive modern values? Which ones says that they are an efficient and dynamic country who put visitors first? Which one welcomes you and makes you feel comfortable? Which one communicates very positive brand values and which one makes you wish you never arrived in America?

Chris Reed
Regional Partnerships Director (Asia)
Partnership Marketing