Changi Airport apologises after passenger complains of slow baggage handling

A forum letter by one Cheong Kah Wai was published in The Straits Times on Nov. 21, 2025.

The letter, "Slow baggage handling at Changi Airport deserves urgent attention", was about Cheong's experience on Nov. 17, 2025.

More than 30-minute wait

Cheong said his flight had arrived at 12:37am, but that at 1:12am, "many passengers were still waiting, visibly frustrated".

His gripe was that while the first batch of 20 or so bags arrived quickly, other passengers faced a 15-minute delay, or more, before the next batch.

Cheong said he had encountered this type of situation before, which he posited might point to a systemic issue.

He also compared it unfavourably with Haneda Airport: "By comparison, airports such as Tokyo’s Haneda often have luggage ready even before passengers clear immigration."

On Dec. 3, Changi Airport Group's Oliver Kiesewetter, senior vice-president of airport operations control, responded to the forum letter with a reply.

In it, Kieswetter apologised for the inconvenience.

The reason for the delay was due to a human error with the baggage handling team, which led to the second batch of bags to be presented later.

Kieswetter also explained that time required for unloading and transpotting bags can be affected by weather and "operational exigencies".

Reactions

Reactions on Reddit Singapore, where the initial forum letter was shared, showed strong support for Changi Airport.

Some posited that immigration clearance was just extremely quick, while another highlighted his experience at Haneda Airport, where he had to wait an hour-and-a-half to clear immigration.

While the bags were indeed arranged nicely at the belt, the user said they would rather sit down and wait for their bags than stand in line to clear immigration.

Image from Virtcam Travel/YouTube and Changi Airport