My afternoon in Singapore continued with a drive over to Seletar Airport (XSP), the “other” airport in Singapore that is far less busy than Singapore Changi (SIN). This report happens to coincide with news that Taylor Swift just arrived at this very airport on Tuesday.
An Inside Look At Seletar Airport, The Other Airport In Singapore
Seletar Airport opened in 1928 as RAF Seletar and was used as a defense post when the Japanese invaded British Malaya. The Japanese prevailed in 1942 and occupied Seletar through 1945. Later on during the Malayan Emergency, Seletar was used as a launchpad for strikes against communist insurgents.
After independence from the United Kingdom and later Malaysia, the British handed back Seletar to Singapore in 1971. In 1977, the airport became center sage for a DC-3 hijacking in Vietnam, resulting in the death of two Vietnamese crew members. The hijackers landed in Seletar seeking asylum in Singapore.
With the construction of Changi Airport, Seletar is used for chartered flights and general aviation. Think VIPs like Taylor Swift. There’s only one current commercial operator, Firefly.
On Tuesday, after completing the Australia portion of her The Eras Tour, Swift flew from Sydney to Seletar using a chartered Bombardier Global Express jet (registration 9H-VTD).
Hundreds of fans were waiting for the 34-year-old pop singer she landed. From there, she was whisked off to Sentosa Island, which I coincidentally wrote about earlier today. Swift will be offering several performances in Singapore starting on Saturday.
Let’s take a look inside the airport: it’s like a small-town airport in the USA, only much posher.
There’s easy parking outside. No lines. A single check-in area with flights on Firefly to Subang, Malaysia (SZB) operated on an ATR 72-500 aircraft. SZB is the old Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
There’s a restaurant, lush gardens, and plenty of seating as well.
As an aside, there’s a flight school nearby the airport called Aviation Hub and I got to “fly to New York” in a simulator (thanks to a friend of my friend). That was quite a lot of fun. It has been many years since I have flown. I wish I had more time for this!
CONCLUSION
Singapore Changi may be one of my favorite airports in the world, but Selatar reminded me of a “mini-me” version that is far less hectic. I’m going to have to try flying out of here on a future trip!
Have you flown out of Seletar Airport before?
All rap and rock and rap performers are morons . I’ve seen one or two in FC and they are really really bad news .
Nice article.
Matthew wrote “With the construction of Changi Airport, Seletar is used for chartered flights and general aviation. ” That might lead the reader to think Seletar was the former main airport. No.
Paya Lebar is the old Singapore International. Heads of state still fly there. It’s an air force bsse that will be closed and converted to housing and neighborhoods soon.
Some Malay airlines protested and wanted to fly to Changi, not Seletar!
One more thing, it is pronounced se LEE tar, not SELL a tar
I flew there last year with Firefly from SZB. Fun little airport. Immigration was sure fast with only one ATR landing at a time. Having flown into KUL, then from SZB to XSP, and finally out of SIN it was quite fun to compare airport sizes and crowds in both Kuala Lumpur and Singapore!
This is even more boring than your dull, “Good coffee in X” crap.
*yawn*
I enjoy the coffee reviews as I love coffee and try the local coffee wherever I go. I wish there was a way to filter coffee reviews easily (can that be done?)
haha
Chi is right.
Simple solution. Don’t read it.
Don’t complain blogger boy. You get a few pennies from my clicks and I get a little dopamine jolt from trolling you. It’s win win.
I certainly wasn’t complaining.
Seletar is an enormous time saver for those who travel between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore yet so few people know of the option. That, by itself, makes this post quite helpful.
How are the transit connections to Seletar? I flew in to Subang once, and though closer to KL, it seemed like it was aimed at locals driving, and out and back business travelers, not so much tourists.
There’s a bus stop out front. It’s about a 10 minute ride to the metro (somewhere on the purple line, I don’t remember which stop exactly). Not as convenient to transit as Changi but not bad either.
Many of the Seletar passengers are locals who do business in KL and vice versa. Grab is very easy to book but public transportation is not so straight forward.
Are there ever private flights being taken between J.B. and Seletar?
The one guy whom I would have asked that, tragically, I just found out yesterday that he had died in a plane crash in Malaysia earlier in February.
https://bnnbreaking.com/aviation/tragedy-in-the-skies-malaysian-light-aircraft-crash-investigation-underway
In other singing traveler news, Rihanna has landed in India for the wedding celebrations of the son of an Indian billionaire. And so have a bunch of billionaires. Taylor Swift somehow isn’t on the list — maybe her going rate for private performances is too high at this time.