Get On Your Flight or Go To Jail In Singapore!
Singapore’s Changi airport is one of the best in the world. It features 40-meter waterfall, a 14,000-square-meter Canopy Park with a suspension bridge, one of Asia’s largest indoor gardens, mazes and much more. And that is causing some trouble, because people want to get in just to hang out in there. They book refundable tickets which they cancel before the flight takes off, which is against Singapore Changi airport rules.
Singapore Changi Airport Rules
That has prompted airport security to put up signs to warn people. If you do not intend to travel, it is an arrestable offence to enter the transit area. That’s even if you have a boarding pass. The misuse of boarding passes is an offense in Singapore, where transit areas are considered “protected places.”
If you get caught doing it, you can get fined up to S$20,000 (US$14,300) or imprisoned for up to two years. That hasn’t stopped everyone though. Thirty three people have been arrested under the legislation in the first eight months of 2019.
The latest arrest was a 27-year-old who bought a ticket purely to walk his wife to the gate and had “no intention to depart Singapore,” CNN reports.
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Of course it’s Singapore and its authoritarianism… not really surprising.
You wouldn’t get in trouble if you did this in just about every other country*. (AFAIK, some airports like Pittsburgh even have passes for entering the airside area)
*Although in some countries, leaving the departure area could be difficult.
Two years for a boarding pass with no intent to fly? How much for chewing gum?
Well, I suppose that no one can accuse them of security theater. They play for real.