Organization: Changi Airport Group
Industry: Aviation, Travel, Retail
Use Case: Unified search across e-commerce, physical stores, services, and airport experiences
Technology: OpenSearch
Challenge
Changi Airport serves millions of passengers each year and supports a wide ecosystem of retail, food and beverage, services, and experiences across its terminals and Jewel. Digital platforms such as changiairport.com and the Changi App help travelers quickly find what they need – whether it’s flight information, shopping and dining options, airport facilities, or events.
Previously, search on these platforms relied on legacy search engines built primarily on keyword matching and exact-term tagging. The system lacked semantic understanding, had limited synonym support, and provided little room for in-house experimentation. As a result, searches that did not exactly match indexed terms often returned poor or zero results. For example, a query like “ATM” could fail if only the official term “Cash Machines” had been indexed.
As Changi’s digital ecosystem grew, the team set a clear objective: transform search from a basic lookup function into a more seamless and accurate unified discovery experience, while building the foundation for more advanced techniques such as semantic search.
Solution
Changi Airport Group implemented an OpenSearch platform to support a more unified search experience across its website and mobile application. OpenSearch gave the team full ownership of their search architecture and the freedom to tailor ingestion and relevance logic to airport-specific needs. It also enabled a streamlined experience where customers can search across multiple channels using a single query, instead of navigating siloed systems.
To make search more reliable in an airport context, the team implemented near-term relevance improvements in the query pipeline, starting with airport-specific synonym mappings for airline and airport names and codes, and continuously expanded these lists as new patterns emerged. The team also adopted more flexible matching strategies (e.g., fuzzy matching) to better handle variations and typos in user input, and introduced Auto-Complete to reduce typing effort, minimise errors, and guide users toward search terms that are more likely to return relevant results.
To support discovery and not just direct look-up, the team added features inspired by hybrid search concepts from the OpenSearch community. One example is a “You May Also Like” section that complements direct matches with relevant alternatives. Instead of ending the user journey at a single result or no result, it guides users towards related options that are likely to match their intent.
In addition, iShopChangi, Changi Airport’s e-commerce platform that allows travellers to browse and purchase duty-free and retail products online, was indexed into the search system. Relevant iShopChangi product listings are surfaced directly within search results alongside tenants and services across the airport, bridging information discovery with e-commerce opportunities and enabling travellers to move seamlessly from search to purchase.
Results
Search relevance improved significantly, reducing zero-result queries from 17% to below 3%. Enhanced discovery is contributing to stronger engagement and e-commerce performance. The “You May Also Like” feature had about 11% click-through rate, helping recover user journeys that would previously have ended without results. In addition, searches that led to iShopChangi conversions contributed a measurable share of overall iShopChangi sales, highlighting the growing role of search in driving digital commerce.
Looking Ahead
Changi Airport Group is exploring intent-aware search techniques that build on its existing OpenSearch platform. This work focuses on better understanding what users mean when product-level or tenant data is incomplete, and is informed by internal research as well as ongoing learning from the OpenSearch community.
These exploratory efforts aim to further improve discovery and relevance while maintaining the flexibility and control the team has established with its current search platform.
Learn More
- Visit Changi Airport Group: https://www.changiairport.com/
- Explore OpenSearch: https://opensearch.org/
