SINGAPORE may have its own version of Tom Hanks in the 2004 Steven Spielberg-directed comedydrama, The Terminal.

This time though, it's an Asian-looking pair apparently living and camping out at Changi Airport Terminal 2.

And in the day, the two - an elderly man and a middle-aged woman - can usually be found at the Starbucks outlet there.

They both dressed well and the woman had make-up on.

The Terminal is about a traveller, played by Tom Hanks, who got stranded at John F. Kennedy airport after a coup in his home country. Unable to enter the US and unable to fly home because his passport is no longer valid, he waits out the war in the terminal.

Student Michelle Seah, 19, snapped a picture of the Terminal 2 couple and e-mailed it to the online news portal, Stomp.

She said in her e-mail yesterday: "I started noticing them when I was studying there with my friends in October last year.

"They usually hog the seats in the middle and they are there 24 hours, every day."

Michelle told Stomp that she saw the couple again when she was at the Starbucks outlet two days ago - that would mean the couple could have been 'living' there for about three months.

"The staff there told me the couple had said they work in the airport. The couple do not move away from the seats. They have many luggages with them and they wear expensive items... such as LV (Louis Vuitton) bags," she said.

When my paper visited the couple, they refused to comment when asked why they have been hanging around at the airport for so long. They told us to leave in local-accented English.

They were seated at a different table from where their luggages and plastic bags were.

Not long after my paper arrived, a friend of the pair joined them. The group became agitated after some time.

The manager of Starbucks said that since they are paying customers, they have "every right to be there".

Starbucks marketing manager Tricia-Ann Kee said: "Yes, they are our regular customers who frequent our store several times a day. Our customers come for coffee, stay for the inviting warmth and return for the very human connection. It is part of the Starbucks Experience..."

However, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said: "People who are identified to be repeatedly staying overnight at the airport will be referred to the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.

"CAAS does not condone persons staying overnight at the airport for extended periods of time."

myp@sph.com.sg

Photo: T2 COFFEE FOR - A Stomp reader said she started noticing the couple (left and standing) there since last October