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Singapore expands Vaccinated Travel Lanes to Switzerland and Australia
October 27th 2021
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has moved quickly to capitalise on the opening of quarantine-free Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs) to passengers from Australia from November 8. Read More » The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) announced late Tuesday it was extending the VTL scheme to Australia and also Switzerland as part of a “cautious step-by-step effort to revive air travel”. The scheme allows fully vaccinated travellers from eligible countries to enter Singapore without quarantine providing they undergo PCR testing. Australia is among Singapore’s top 10 markets for passenger arrivals at Changi Airport, accounting for about 4% of the total in 2019. There is strong visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travel demand between Singapore and Australia. Amost 50,000 Singaporeans live in Australia and 25,000 Australians are resident in Singapore. SIA has continued flying to Australia during the pandemic and already has responded to announcements that New South Wales and Victoria will open their borders to eligible travellers from November 1. SIA regional vice president South-West Pacific, Louis Arul, said the VTL announcement was opportune. “To support the VTL, SIA will, from Monday November 8, designate two daily flights each from Melbourne (SQ218 and SQ228) and Sydney (SQ212 and SQ222) into Singapore as VTL services,” he said. “Scoot, our sister airline, will operate daily VTL services from Melbourne (TR19) and four times weekly VTL services from Sydney (TR13). The Australia-Singapore VTL flights will allow quarantine-free travel to Singapore and provide seamless connectivity for travellers returning to Australia on the 20 VTL services in operation across SIA’s network.” Arul said the airline was looking forward to welcoming customers on its flights and noted SIA had implemented health and safety measures and a suite of digital initiatives to make travel more comfortable and seamless for passengers. “As we continue to support all levels of government in planning for Australia’s reopening in a safe, sustainable and scalable way. We will remain nimble in deploying capacity to markets as demand warrants,” he said.
