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Link INSIDE SINGAPORE'S CHANGI AIRPORT: The vertical 'green wall' garden in Terminal 3 at Changi Airport.

Terminal 3 - Transit - Green Wall

Shilla Duplex

Snooze Lounge

Terminal 3 - Transit - Shilla Duplex (Dior Lounge)

Changi has five gardens spread over three terminals. Photo: supplied

Cactus Garden

Artist's impress of Changi Airport's new development, The Jewel: A key feature of Jewel Changi Airport will be a large scale, lush indoor garden with a breathtaking central waterfall. Photo: Jewel Changi Airport

Artist's impress of Changi Airport's new development, The Jewel: Jewel Changi Airport is an iconic mixed-use complex being planned at Changi Airport. It is envisaged to be a world-class lifestyle destination that will strongly boost Changi's attractiveness as an air hub.

Artist's impress of Changi Airport's new development, The Jewel: Jewel Changi Airport is envisaged to be a must-visit Singapore attraction for tourists, and a wonderful weekend destination for local residents. Photo: Jewel Changi Airport

Artist's impress of Changi Airport's new development, The Jewel: Seamlessly connected to Terminals 1, 2 and 3, Jewel Changi Airport will offer aviation and travel facilities, unique attractions and exciting retail offerings all under one roof - just a few steps away from Changi’s departure gates. Photo: Jewel Changi Airport

Terminal 3 - Transit - DFS Duplex. Photo: Changi Airport Group

Terminal 3 - Transit - DFS Duplex. Photo: Changi Airport Group

The prefect airport: Singapore's Changi Airport.

Duty free shop. Photo: iStock

Departure Hall of Changi airport. Photo: iStock

Singapore Changi Airport. Photo: iStock

Terminal 1 - Aerotel Transit Hotel (room with airside view). Photo: Changi Airport Group

Terminal 2 - Transit - Orchid Garden Koi Pond.

Airside - Southcross Bridge. Photo: Changi Airport Group

Terminal 2 - Transit - Sunflower Garden. Photo: Changi Airport Group

Terminal 3 - Baggage Belt

POOL BAR, SINGAPORE CHANGI: The name says everything you need to know, really. There's a swimming pool, with a bar, at Singapore Changi Airport. A small investment of $S17 allows passengers access to the Aerotel Airport Transit Hotel's rooftop pool area in Terminal 1. That means a chance to breathe in some fresh air, take a dip in the pool, soak in the jacuzzi, have a quick shower, and then enjoy a few drinks poolside. There can't be many better ways to prepare for a flight. Photo: Supplied

Terminal 3 departure hall. Photo: Changi Airport Group

Upon entering Terminal 3's Departure Hall, one will be immediately drawn to a huge five-storey high vertical garden - the Green Wall.

Whether it is sports, entertainment or news, travellers in Terminals 1, 2 & 3, Departure/Transit Mall will be able to catch the latest happenings at the TV lounges. Photo: Changi Airport Group

This 330 sqm, two-storey open-air garden is home to more than 1,000 free roaming butterflies that are native to Singapore and Malaysia. Get a chance to observe the life cycle of butterflies at close range. It is a unique attraction designed to complement Terminal 3's nature theme and Singapore's tropical garden image. Located at Terminal 3, Departure/ Transit Mall North, Levels 2 and 3. Photo: Changi Airport Group

SingKids Playsystem. Photo: Changi Airport Group

Take a ride on The Slide@T3, the world's tallest slide in an airport. Standing at a height of 12 metres high or four storeys tall, shriek your way down the slide while reaching top speeds of up to 6 metres per second. Photo: Supplied

Take a ride on The Slide@T3, the world's tallest slide in an airport. Standing at a height of 12 metres high or four storeys tall, shriek your way down the slide while reaching top speeds of up to 6 metres per second. Photo: Supplied

Sunflower garden (night) Be greeted by more than 500 sunflowers in the day and be enchanted by firefly-like bulbs at night.

Movie theatre interior - latest blockbusters are free, 24 hours daily.

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It's said that you often never truly value something until it's gone. It's a maxim that could apply to Singapore, the island city-state that Australian travellers once loved to dismiss as a cultural desert (oh, the irony). But then Qantas, after partnering with Emirates, dumped it as a stopover in favour of a real desert destination.

In the meantime, as Qantas flirted with Dubai as its main hub for passengers en route to Europe, Singapore reinvented itself, with an array of new cultural and entertainment attractions, as a more dynamic destination, worthy of even a proper holiday than a mere stopover, and as a genuine global food capital.

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Now our de facto national carrier has announced that it will reroute its daily, and prestigious, Sydney to London A380 service to fly via Singapore instead of Dubai, from March next year.

Play Video Replay Video Play Video Don't Play Timelapse: Inside the world's best airport A day in the life of Singapore's Changi Airport, one of the world's busiest, portrayed in a stunning timelapse. Video: Changi Airport Group

Singapore's main daily newspaper, The Straits Times, described the decision as "a significant boost to Singapore's [Changi Airport] air hub status". Australia, as The Straits Times points out, remains among Changi Airport's top five markets in passenger traffic terms, with more than 5.5 million passengers travelling between Singapore and Australia annually.

The decision by Qantas will mean a considerably shorter first leg from Sydney compared to the extended one to Dubai (but, conversely, a longer hop to Europe from Singapore), and an opportunity for Australians to fully re-engage with clean, safe, efficient and friendly Singapore as a stopover, and more, destination.

Despite widespread admiration for Emirates as an first-rate airline, Australians, it seems, have never completely fallen for Dubai, as either a stopover or a holiday destination, with its tourism authorities failing to successfully position it in this market of prolific travellers.

Artist's impress of Changi Airport's new development, The Jewel.​ Photo: Jewel Changi Airport

Not even an effort to establish the euphemism, "Arabian Peninsula", instead of "Middle East", as a designation for Dubai's location, has succeeded. Unbearably hot for half of the year and even more unwalkable, for the most part, than Los Angeles, Australians have tended to opt to go all the way on to the continent rather than breaking their journey in Dubai.

But, by the same token, Dubai, with its tiresome obsession for ever-taller structures, does have its allures: a somewhat overlooked historic "old town" area (with even the odd two-storey, rather multi-storey, hotel, heaven forbid), cooling pleasure cruises on Dubai Creek and some incredible day and overnight tours, operated by the Emirates-owned Arabian Adventures, into the desert.


What the Qantas announcement does represent, in the bigger scheme of global aviation, is a win for Singapore in the battle of the hubs, with the mammoth Middle East airports of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The Qantas announcement couldn't come at a better time for Singapore's much loved Changi Airport which is spending $S1.7 billion ($A1.6 billion) on The Jewel, an architecturally-striking (Dubai-like?) leisure, shopping and dining complex under construction in the air space between the main terminals.

Desert? Who said desert?

Anthony Dennis is editor of Fairfax Media's Traveller.

See also: What it's like to spend 24-hours inside Singapore's Changi Airport

See also: Skytrax names the world's best airports for 2017