The first and last people that travellers meet: Changi Airport frontliner has to remove his PPE every time he visits the toilet

29-year-old Sky Tan has not seen his family in Malaysia for close to two years. And despite the recently-announced vaccinated travel lane (VTL) between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur that's starting Nov 29, heading back to Penang to see his parents will have to wait.

Sky works at Singapore's Changi Airport as a Changi Experience Supervisor, a customer service role that mainly requires him to handle queries from travellers within the terminal.

It's a position he has climbed up to from five years ago, when Sky first started out as a service ambassador.

Although he is excited by the prospect of going home, it is tempered by the awareness that many of his countrymen are probably also eager to make their long-awaited trip back.

"We won't be rushing back to Malaysia immediately, because we know that many travellers will either be rushing back as well or rushing to Singapore," says Sky.

Instead, Sky and his wife, who's also Malaysian, will be waiting for more flights to open up and for the expected surge of travellers to taper off slightly before planning a trip home.

Sky shares with us that the opening of borders is also welcome news for him on the work front, as he admits to missing the hustle and bustle of the airport in the past two years.

"I feel excited as this means the airline industry is slowly recovering and it also gives me more motivation now."

We speak with Sky to find out more about how working in Changi Airport's transit areas has been like since the pandemic began.

Changi Airport before and during Covid-19 pandemic

Since the start of the pandemic, Changi Airport has understandably been a shell of its former self in terms of flight traffic. It currently sees sporadic flights landing at Terminals 1 and 3 each day, a far cry from when the former world number one airport's four terminals and transit areas would be a hive of activity around the clock.

And for the first time in nearly a decade, Changi Airport lost its top spot in Skytrax's ranking of the world's best airports, falling to third place this year.

To Sky, the contrast is observably stark, as he used to man the information counters at Changi's four terminals and rove around different sections of the airport.

"Last time, with two staff members at the counter, each person has to continuously serve two to three travellers at the same time," he shares of the constant flow of passengers. These days, however, the workload is definitely less hectic, with busy periods concentrated mostly in the mornings and evenings when flights come in.

Describing his job as "more than just an information counter", Sky shares that he's someone who relishes interactions with passengers, even if the situations can sometimes be challenging.

He has met angry passengers who are rude or tell him off, but Sky takes pride in being able to appease them and resolve their issues.

"For myself I actually quite enjoy settling the emotions of angry passengers, getting them calm before they start to share with me their issues or problems," says Sky.

The types of travellers he sees these days and the queries that they have are vastly different too. 

Before Covid, Sky recalls that one of the most common questions was how to connect to the terminal's free Wi-Fi.

But now, the foremost question on their minds is simply, "Where is the immigration [counter]?", Sky shares. "Especially for arriving passengers now, they just want to clear immigration, that's it."

Sky shares with us that when Covid-19 first hit the travel industry last year, he was confronted with the real fear of losing his job. As an employment pass holder, this may mean having to return to his hometown of Penang if he didn't manage to secure alternative employment here.

It would have been a thorny situation that Sky is glad to have averted. "I was lucky to get a redeployment as there were also limited positions available," he says.

As a result of Covid-19 clusters detected at the airport in May, operations quickly shifted as well.

The airport was separated into different zones as a precautionary measure to prevent cross-infection among staff members.

In his supervisory role, Sky was redeployed to oversee staff working in Zone 1, located within the transit area. Employees deployed to Zone 1 are the first and last point of contact for embarking and disembarking passengers.

Besides assisting with passengers' requests and queries, they also ensure that travellers adhere to safe-distancing measures and wear their masks properly within the terminals.

PPE on, PPE off

We had to ask: what was it like working in an area some may consider as high risk?

Sky shares that all staff in Zone 1 have to fully vaccinated and are required to don their personal protection equipment (PPE) — which includes a gown, gloves, an N95 mask and face shield — at all times.

However, they have to remove the equipment whenever they visit the staff toilet or when taking breaks in the designated staff resting area.

"We will remove our PPE, then wipe our personal belongings before going into the resting area," says Sky. "We also have to remove it when we go to the toilet, so that cleaners will not be in contact with any contaminated PPEs," he adds.

And if you're wondering if it's a troublesome process, the answer is, "Yes quite", Sky admits with a laugh. But he understands that it's a necessary precaution to ensure the safety of everyone in the transit terminals.

Sky shares how that was the time when he could sense the wary gazes of others whenever he took the bus or MRT to the airport. His wife, who's working in Singapore too, was also understandably worried for his safety.

What Sky quickly realised, however, was that the airport's precautionary measures are "way better than any other place", especially with regard to its disinfection procedures.

"In terms of protecting staff against the virus, it is also better compared to [standards] in the community so there was no worry," Sky shares.

Staff like Sky are also required to do two breathalyser tests and one polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test every week.

Lull periods a struggle

What Sky struggles with these days, however, are the lull periods at work where there are few or no passengers. It usually occurs during the wee hours of the morning when time passes painfully slowly.

"It can be quite boring during those times, but we'll try to go around the gates to spot passengers who require some help. Because some travellers may not be aware that they have access to proper resting areas instead of sleeping on the carpeted floor," says Sky.

With the Covid-19 situation creating somewhat a distance (literally and figuratively) between people in general, positive interactions and heartwarming moments between staff and passengers are all the more treasured.

Sky shares how several months ago, an Indonesian passenger was stranded in transit for 1.5 days due to some missing documentation.

When Sky and two other colleagues managed to help him resolve the issue, the grateful passenger treated them to a meal just before his flight took off.

"Passengers in the transit holding area can now order food from an app while waiting for their flights and we will help to deliver the food to them," explains Sky. 

"So he ordered a meal and we were surprised that the names written on the order chit were ours," he shares. "It's something that we never expected passengers would do for us."

Another time, Sky managed to help a passenger who appeared to be frustrated about not being able to get a cup of coffee from a drinks dispenser as it did not accept cash payment.

"I could see that she was a bit upset because she had to stay in the holding area for almost 18 or 19 hours."

Sky ended up paying for her coffee out of his own pocket, which he could tell surprised her.

It's this human touch to his job that Sky misses the most, and another reason why he is happy to see that the travel industry is on the rebound.

"We really miss the airport environment before and being able to serve a larger volume of passengers, because then we can see many different passengers who have different stories to share with us every day."

Travelling back to Malaysia, however, is definitely still on the cards in the near future. Asked what the first thing he'll do back home besides seeing his parents is, Sky says: "Collect the keys and visit our new home with my wife."

candicecai@asiaone.com