Why this profile exists

The partnership assembling this consortium is not itself a construction or engineering contractor. Its role is to structure and govern a competitive delivery process through which the client can select the strongest combination of international design and engineering expertise, regional construction capability and local delivery — then to hold that consortium together through delivery.

For that model to be credible, the client needs evidence that the Western anchor of the consortium can actually deliver airports in this region at the scale and standard required. This document provides that evidence for Arup, the British engineering and design consultancy that the partnership is positioned to convene as the proposed lead designer and engineering partner.

What this document evidences

• Arup’s corporate scale, ownership and aviation track record.
• A dedicated aviation practice with regional leadership based in Singapore and Hong Kong.
• Verified airport projects in Vietnam, Singapore and Laos — the three markets most relevant to the programme under discussion.
• Capability beyond design: masterplanning, airport systems, operational readiness (ORAT), sustainability and airport operations advisory.

How to read it

The case studies are drawn from Arup’s own published project record and from client announcements. They demonstrate what the firm has actually been appointed to do in this region — not what it proposes to do. Sections describing the Laos engagement are factual: they record published agreements and procurement positions, and make no claim about outcomes.

Arup at a glance

Arup is an independent firm of planners, designers, engineers and consultants, founded in London in 1946 and owned by its employees rather than external shareholders. The firm describes itself as a collective of approximately 16,000 professionals working across 140 countries.

In aviation, Arup states that it has been involved in aviation development for over 70 years, with assignments at more than 100 airports worldwide, and that it has advised the majority of the world’s leading airports. It is recognised as a global leader in airport masterplanning, terminal and support-facility design, and specialist aviation services.

Aviation credentials in one line

From masterplanning and feasibility through terminal and airfield engineering, digital passenger systems, baggage handling, operational readiness and sustainability — Arup covers the full lifecycle of an airport asset, from first strategic study to opening day and beyond.

JetBlue JFK Terminal 5 — one of Arup’s recent terminal projects in the United States. Image: Arup.

What Arup does on airports

Arup’s aviation work spans the entire airport lifecycle — from strategic masterplan to detailed engineering, systems integration, operational readiness and long-term asset management.

Airport design and infrastructure

Physical design of airport structures at every scale: control towers, passenger terminals, cargo and maintenance facilities, and airfield assets including runways, taxiways and aprons. The practice states it has worked at the leading edge of aviation infrastructure design for over 60 years.

Planning and masterplanning

Strategic and commercial planning for airport owners, operators, developers, airlines and regulators — long-term masterplans, mid-term capital investment plans, feasibility studies and planning submissions, at scales from regional airports to capital-city hubs.

Airport systems and operations

Operational performance consulting, asset management, baggage handling systems, passenger information systems and logistics strategy. Independent advisory across planning, design and implementation.

Operational readiness (ORAT)

A defined Arup service: preparing airport operators for successful opening day — trials, staff training, transition planning and cutover management for new terminals and facilities.

Safety, sustainability and future mobility

Security and risk planning; decarbonisation and energy strategy for airport estates; and emerging areas including advanced air mobility and hydrogen readiness.

A dedicated aviation team for the region

Arup does not serve Southeast Asia from London. It maintains a permanent regional aviation organisation led from Singapore and Hong Kong, with named business leaders for Southeast Asia and Australasia.

Regional aviation leadership

Arup Singapore

Established in 1968, Arup’s Singapore office employs more than 350 professionals across specialist disciplines and has delivered landmark Singapore developments including Marina Bay Sands and the Helix. The office serves as the regional aviation hub.

Current flagship engagement

Arup’s Singapore aviation team has been part of the Master Building Consultants for Changi Airport Terminal 5 since 2023, leading design integration across specialist engineering disciplines and airport planning — one of the largest airport projects anywhere in the world.

UK industry standing

Arup is a member of the British Aviation Group and its Airport Consultants Group — the UK body representing aviation design, engineering and consultancy firms internationally.

Regional aviation is a standing practice area, not a project-by-project outreach. Image: Arup.

ASEAN airport projects

Four Arup engagements in Vietnam, Singapore and Laos form the core of its ASEAN airport record. Wider regional credentials follow the table.

Wider regional credentials

• Taoyuan International Airport Terminal 3, Taiwan — new terminal for 45 million passengers a year (project imagery published on Arup’s aviation pages).
• Narita Airport City, Japan — airport city masterplan.
• Western Sydney Airport, Australia — masterplan and operational planning.
• Mumbai Airport Terminal 2, India — Arup led the entire operational readiness, activation and transition (ORAT) process.
• San Francisco International Airport Terminal 1, USA — airside civil engineering, apron and taxiway design; first terminal to achieve LEED v4 Platinum.

Long Thanh terminal — the “blooming lotus” form designed by Heerim Architects. Image: Arup.

Located 40km east of Ho Chi Minh City, Long Thanh is Vietnam’s largest modern international airport and its designated second gateway for the southern metropolis. Conceived by Heerim Architects in the form of a blooming lotus, the terminal presents one of the most geometrically complex structures in regional aviation.

Arup’s role

Arup is the structural engineering and civil engineering consultant for the detailed design stage of the terminal building — the engineering spine of the project, working inside a team led by the client’s own structures.

Delivery team

Heerim Architects & Planners (architect); Consultant & Inspection Joint Stock Company of Construction Technology and Equipment; NACO BV Airport Engineering Consultancy & Services via joint venture.

The engineering problem

The lotus-inspired form produces a highly complex roof geometry that had to be rationalised, analysed and detailed inside a tight programme. Arup’s structural team used digital modelling tools — Rhino/Grasshopper feeding the GSA analysis model — to keep the analysis model continuously updated as the geometry evolved.

What the role covered

• Detailed structural and civil engineering design of the terminal.
• Airport planning parameters assessment to future-proof infrastructure and optimise usage.
• Design studies for sustainability, passenger experience and climate resilience.
• Coordination with architect, airport planners and Vietnamese inspection consultants.

Why it is relevant to a Lao programme

• Scale match. A national-gateway terminal with phased capacity growth — the same delivery shape as new Lao airports.
• Regional delivery. Executed inside Vietnam’s own consultant and inspection regime, alongside international and local partners — the same East–West delivery pattern the consortium model proposes.
• Climate resilience. Explicit design focus on resilience to climate change for a Mekong-region asset.

Long Thanh construction and data illustration. Image: Arup.

Capacity planning and future-proofing

Long Thanh is being designed for growth on a regional scale: phase one handles 25 million passengers a year, with infrastructure planned to scale beyond 100 million at ultimate completion. Arup’s assessment of airport planning parameters fed directly into the client’s decisions about flexible capacity and long-life infrastructure.

Transferable lessons

Long Thanh is under development; completion dates are set by the client and are not stated here. Arup’s role is detailed design engineering — not construction, financing or concession holding.

Terminal 5 design — part of the 1,080-hectare Changi East development. Image: Changi Airport Group.

Arup’s role

In April 2018 Changi Airport Group appointed Arup Singapore, Mott MacDonald Singapore and Surbana Jurong Consultants as the engineering consortium for the Master Building Consultants — covering architectural engineering services for the Main Terminal Building, Satellite Terminal Building, Ground Transportation Centre and primary landside roadways. The same consortium forms the core of the Master Civil Consultants for landside and airside works.

Since 2023, Arup’s Singapore aviation team has led design integration across specialist engineering disciplines and airport planning on the project.

Milestone

T5 broke ground on 14 May 2025, officiated by Singapore’s Prime Minister. It is designed to operate flexibly as sub-terminals, linking to existing terminals via automated people mover.

Scope of the engineering appointment

T5 is not a single building but a mini-city: a mega terminal, satellite terminal, ground transportation centre and an entire airfield and landside programme. Arup’s consortium appointment covers both sides of that boundary.

Building scope (Master Building Consultants)

• Main Terminal Building and Satellite Terminal Building — full engineering services alongside architects KPF, Heatherwick Studio and Architects 61.
• Ground Transportation Centre integrating train, bus and taxi services.
• Primary landside roadways.

Civil and airfield scope (Master Civil Consultants)

• Taxiways, aircraft parking stands, roadways and drainage.
• Utility connections — power, water, gas, fuel and telecommunications.
• Changi Airport Planners and Engineers completes the civil consortium.

Why T5 demonstrates the model

T5 shows how Arup operates inside a consortium — the same delivery shape proposed for the Laos programme.

Consortium composition and roles were determined by the client through competitive appointment — consistent with the client-led selection model this profile supports.

Changi Terminal 4 — 16 million passengers a year capacity. Image: Arup.

Arup’s role

Appointed directly by Changi Airport Group, Arup conducted and facilitated the design, tendering and project management of the integrated information display system (IIDS) and the façade engineering design for Terminal 4 — working with SAA Architects on the building envelope and metal roof.

This is a systems-and-systems-integration appointment, not a structural one: passenger information, content management, glazing, sunshades and daylighting — the digital and environmental layer of a working terminal.

Systems depth and opening-day assurance

T4 demonstrates two capabilities that matter for any new Lao terminal: airport IT and passenger systems, and operational readiness.

Information systems

• Business review of existing IIDS and operational workflows, benchmarked against international airports.
• Selection, design, tendering and project management of the IIDS and content management system.
• Real-time flight and content information across check-in, arrivals, baggage and transit zones.

Façade engineering

• Glazing and sunshade design balancing daylight, thermal performance and aesthetics.
• Low-iron, low-emissivity glass with aerodynamic sunshades; trellis skylights directing daylight away from critical workspaces.

ORAT

Arup’s team stayed involved from pre-tendering through testing and commissioning, supporting more than 100 ORAT trials involving 2,500 staff and 7,500 volunteers before opening.

T4 check-in hall. Image: Arup.

T4 departures. Image: Arup.

Arup’s Laos work sits inside national airport planning for a landlocked, aviation-dependent economy. Image: Arup.

2022 — national feasibility study

In September 2022, Phongsavanh Group (PSVG) and Arup Singapore signed an agreement for a detailed feasibility study on airport improvement and development in Laos. The signing was witnessed by the Minister of Public Works and Transport, implementing a June 2022 MOU between PSVG and the ministry’s Civil Aviation Department. Arup had been shortlisted from three international firms.

2025 — Luang Prabang PPP

PSVG, partnered with Arup Group Limited, was among 16 firms submitting expressions of interest for the Luang Prabang International Airport PPP — an IFC-advised procurement for expansion to four phases and approximately 3.6 million annual passengers.

Why this matters

• Sovereign-client experience. Arup has worked directly with Lao state institutions, not only private operators.
• Full lifecycle. Feasibility study through to PPP prequalification — the same arc as a Lao airport programme.
• Only BAG member on the Lao record. No other British Aviation Group member has a documented Laos airport engagement.
• Local partnership model. Arup’s Lao work runs through PSVG — a Lao-owned group with construction, banking, aviation and logistics arms — demonstrating the foreign-design + local-delivery structure the consortium proposes.

Delivery credentials

Airport programmes fail at the interfaces — design to construction, construction to systems, systems to opening day. Arup’s record covers those interfaces.

Certification and standards

Arup’s project work is delivered to international certification regimes including LEED, BREEAM and national green-building schemes (Green Mark in Singapore), alongside ICAO-aligned aviation planning practice. Its ORAT methodology is a named, repeatable service.

How the consortium would work with Arup

Arup’s value to this programme is not a single appointment — it is the ability to hold the Western technical scope together inside a consortium that also includes regional construction and local delivery.

Possible engagement shapes

• Lead designer / engineering consultant for terminal and airfield packages.
• Masterplanning and feasibility advisory at programme outset.
• Specialist systems — IIDS, baggage handling advisory, ORAT — as discrete scopes.
• Consortium member alongside regional contractors, as at Changi T5.

What the partnership adds around Arup

• East–West interface management — translating between Western design process and regional construction practice.
• Consortium governance — aligned contracts, single reporting line, performance management.
• Chinese partner convening — financing and EPC relationships alongside Arup’s design leadership.
• Lao delivery structure — local employment, training and supply-chain requirements written into bid criteria.

Sources and image credits

Project imagery

• Cover, capability sections, Long Thanh case study, T4 case study, Laos section — imagery published by Arup on arup.com project and market pages.
• Changi Terminal 5 aerial image — Changi Airport Group official project asset.

Facts and sources

• Arup corporate and aviation capability: arup.com — Aviation market page, Aviation Services, Arup in Aviation 2025 brochure, Arup Singapore office page (accessed Nov 2026).
• Long Thanh: arup.com project page — Long Thanh International Airport terminal building.
• Changi Terminal 4: arup.com project page — Changi Airport Terminal 4.
• Changi Terminal 5: Changi Airport Group T5 project page and consultant appointment announcement (Apr 2018); Mott MacDonald T5 groundbreaking announcement (May 2025); KPF project page.
• Laos engagement: Vientiane Times, 14 Sep 2022 (PSVG–Arup feasibility agreement); Lao Ministry of Public Works and Transport procurement notices (2025).

Image rights

Imagery is reproduced from publishers’ public websites for the purpose of this capability profile. Arup and Changi Airport Group retain all rights; wider distribution of this document should be confirmed with the rights holders.

Contact

[TO COMPLETE — partnership contact details]
Prepared November 2026 · Capability summary only — no offer or commitment is made or implied.