Connecting in transit

Text documentation

The arrival in a foreign space begins with a scramble for connection - specifically through the digital. With the Internet, no longer do we have any excuse to put off informing loved ones of our safety and well-being. As travel is made accessible by cheaper travel tickets and communication finds less borders to cross with the Age of the Internet, how do we connect?

For a period of three months (January 2019 to March 2019), I worked as a temporary contractual part-timer at Singapore’s international airport as part of the customer service team. In this job, I aid various travellers in connecting their various electronic devices to the airport’s public wifi. I also help them locate various places (i.e. food, water, toilet, smoking area, shops, gate) in the transit area of the airport.

In this position, I posit these starter questions and allow the travellers to share as much or as little as they wish:

How may I assist you?
Are you travelling home or onwards?
Are you on holiday or work?
Where are you heading to?

In 2018, Singapore’s international airport saw a total of 65.63 million passengers passing through its doors. More than 100 airlines dock, flying to over 400 cities in more than 100 countries and territories. It is estimated about 7,400 flights arrive or depart from the airport per week - an impressive number for a city-state that is 721.5 km². Do we notice them or are they simply passing statistics? Perhaps in the collection of their stories, I can understand how do we connect and why.

Additional Information

Statistics of passengers passing through Singapore’s airport taken from Changi Airport Traffic Statistics.
Statistics of air arrivals and requirements of what constitutes as tourists taken from Singapore Tourism Board Q4 20218 Tourism Sector Performance Report.
Stories collected from travellers are merely those that have engaged with me. On average, I can serve approximately 100 travellers per shift. Scans shown in the gallery below are a selection of the many stories collected.
Total shifts done: 26
This introduction was last updated on 4 March 2019.