SINGAPORE — All eight restaurants on the fifth floor of Jewel Changi Airport as well as a bulk of the eateries on the Basement 2 level will have shorter operating hours starting Wednesday (July 10), a spokesperson for the development told CNA.

All the restaurants at the fifth-level Canopy Park will be open from 9am to 1am on Fridays, Saturdays and the eve of public holidays, and from 10am to midnight from Sundays to Thursdays. 

Some of the food kiosks at Basement 2 will also close earlier, at about midnight, instead of being open for 24 hours. 

In response to queries from CNA, Jewel Changi Airport Development said the review of the operating hours followed engagements it had had with tenants. It is also in tandem with the timing change for Canopy Park attractions. 

From Jul 10, Canopy Park and Canopy Bridge will operate from 10am to midnight from Sundays to Thursdays and 10am to 1am on Fridays, Saturdays and the eve of public holidays.

Some eateries had previously reported that the fewer customers coming after midnight made staying open until late a challenge. 

“It has always been one of the objectives for Jewel to offer extended-hour shopping and dining options to cater to tourists, transit passengers, local residents, hotel guests as well as the 50,000-strong Changi Airport community at the airport that never sleeps," said a spokesperson.

"The different operating hours across the tenants as well as 24-hour operations at selected F&B outlets is meant to support this objective.”

Tenants CNA spoke to welcomed the move, noting that they had been seeing significantly fewer customers after midnight.

Among the basement tenants that will no longer be open 24 hours are A&W and Tokyo Milk Cheese Factory. 

Mr Alvin Ng, who is managing partner at the latter, said that even with Jewel rolling out promotions for late-night visitors — those who are at Jewel until 2am receive a pair of Canopy Park tickets — it was not a sustainable option for business, which saw more supply than demand. 

It was also a challenge getting staff to work the overnight shift.

“We (can now) re-channel our resources from the wee hours to buff up our peak hours, which is (during) the lunches and the dinners. Almost 99 per cent of our sales come from before midnight, the wee hours (contribute to) only one per cent of our sales," said Mr Ng. 

On the fifth level, London’s famed Burger and Lobster that operates until 3am has seen a steady stream of customers even late into the night, but is confident that the shortened hours will not affect earnings too much.

“Obviously the sales will be affected, but not needing as much manpower will reduce our cost, which will balance out with our potential loss of sales which is minimal, compared to the peak hours anyway,” said its regional head of operations Riccardo LaMonica.

In an interview with CNA last month, Jewel Changi Airport’s head of leasing Tan Mui Neo said the longer trading hours were necessary because of the nature of the mall. An airport mall would see staff working round the clock, as well as travellers arriving at all times of the day. 

Jewel Changi Airport currently has 111 eateries, with more than 10 operating past midnight and around 30 that are open 24 hours. CNA

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