Old Kallang Airport

Amelia Earhart called it an aviation miracle of the East. The bus depot next door is less impressed.

Old Kallang Airport is a five-minute stop from the pavement, worth it for history buffs on a Kallang walk or ride and not worth a special trip. The buildings are not open to the public, so the visit is the gate posts, the lamp posts and the streamlined 1937 terminal seen from outside, between the National Stadium and a bus depot. Pair it with Kallang Riverside Park and give it the time it deserves, which is not much, but more than most people give it.

The reason to stop is that this was where Singapore first became a hub. Before Changi and before Paya Lebar, Kallang was the island's first purpose-built civil international airport, built on land reclaimed from mangrove swamp at the edge of the Kallang Basin. Governor Sir Shenton Thomas opened it on 12 June 1937, and its grass runway suited seaplanes as well as aircraft on the England-to-Australia route. Amelia Earhart stopped over that same year and, as the National Library's Infopedia records, called it “an aviation miracle of the East.”

It was a big undertaking for its day. Building on the reclaimed basin took six years and cost $8 million, and Malay residents displaced by the works were moved to what became Kampung Melayu. During the Japanese Occupation the grass gave way to a concrete runway; civil flights resumed in 1949, by 1950 it was ranked the second busiest airport in Southeast Asia, and in 1955 it closed when Paya Lebar took over.

What survives is a fine piece of early modernist design. The terminal, by Public Works Department chief architect Frank Dorrington Ward, is all streamlined curves and horizontal lines around a control tower, with Art Deco touches on the railings and columns. Still standing are the terminal, the East and West Blocks, a hangar, lion-crested gate posts and the original lamp posts. From 1960 to 2009 the People's Association used it as its headquarters, it was the main venue of the 2011 Singapore Biennale, and in 2008 the Urban Redevelopment Authority gazetted the terminal, admin blocks and hangar for conservation.

Its next act is still being decided. In 2024 URA and the Singapore Land Authority sought public ideas for the roughly 10-hectare site, with “lifestyle and recreational offerings amid mixed uses” in mind, and URA's Master Plan 2025 describes it as being repurposed for recreation, keeping selected buildings to recall the city's aviation story.

How to do it well: come on foot or by bike as part of a Kallang loop rather than on its own. Look for the lion-crested gate posts and the lamp posts first, then step back far enough to see the curves around the control tower. Respect any hoardings. Then picture propeller planes taxiing where the stadium now stands; it is the one part of the visit that needs no ticket and no hoarding.

Good to know The buildings are not open to the public, so view from outside and respect any hoardings; it sits across the road from the National Stadium. Check URA updates for news on the site's redevelopment.

Old Kallang Airport | Between the National Stadium and a bus depot, Kallang, Singapore