News
Singapore and Malaysia to allow quarantine-free travel
November 9th 2021
Singapore and Malaysia will launch a quarantine-free Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) program for air travel between the two countries from November 29. Read More » The decision will permit fully-vaccinated travellers to move between Singapore and Malaysia and take COVID-19 tests in lieu of serving quarantine or being subject to a stay-home notice. The removal of quarantine between the nations was announced after a telephone conversation between Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, and his Malaysian counterpart, Ismail Sabri Yaakob. In a joint statement, the leaders said they recognised the disruption caused by COVID-19 to people-to-people connections between the two countries and that it had separated families for many months. They agreed it was timely to resume cross-border travel given the significant progress both countries have made in vaccinating their respective populations and managing the pandemic. They also looked forward to restoring travel across land links between the nations soon. “I am very happy both our countries are finally able to restart cross-border travel through the VTLs,’’ Prime Minister Lee said. “This will help revive our economies, restore our people-to-people ties and strengthen our bilateral relationship.” Singapore has been opening its links to the rest of the world and the The Straits Times reported recently ground handler, dnata, has rehired more than half the staff it retrenched in August last year. The newspaper said Singapore Airlines and another ground handling firm, SATS, were beefing up their resources in a sign the aviation sector in Singapore was preparing to take off again.
