Singapore Airlines Expands Vaccinated Travel Lane Network to 14 Cities

Singapore Airlines has expanded its quarantine-free Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) network to 14 cities, with additional points expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Singapore widened its VTL arrangements on Friday to include Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and United States of America. Those destinations are in addition to the VTL arrangements that were already in place for Brunei and Germany, since September 2021.

Singapore Airlines will operate VTL services from Amsterdam, Barcelona, Copenhagen, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Paris, and Rome starting 19 October 2021, and from Seoul effective 16 November 2021.

SIA already operates VTL services from Bandar Seri Begawan, Frankfurt, and Munich.

Scoot, SIA’s sister airline, will operate VTL flights from Berlin from 20 October 2021.

“Singapore’s expansion of the VTL arrangements to 11 countries is great news for our customers, who can now reunite with their loved ones more easily or finally go on that overseas holiday,” said Mr Lee Lik Hsin, Executive Vice President Commercial, Singapore Airlines. “The SIA Group supports all measures to reopen Singapore to quarantine-free international travel. This will enable the safe and gradual recovery of Changi Airport as a major air hub, backed by rising vaccination rates and confidence in the robust health and safety measures across the end-to-end customer journey.”

Multi-city itineraries within VTL countries are allowed if customers meet the 14-day travel history requirement, which includes transit countries.

For example, a traveller may fly from Singapore to Paris, and then Paris to Amsterdam, and still be eligible for the VTL flight from Amsterdam to Singapore. However, a customer who flies from Singapore to Los Angeles via Tokyo will not be eligible for SIA’s non-stop VTL flight from Los Angeles if the stay in Los Angeles is less than 14 days. Japan is currently not included in the list of VTL countries.

Customers travelling on the VTL flights can also enjoy seamless transfers via Singapore Changi Airport to 59 destinations within the SIA Group network.

All customers must ensure that they are fully eligible for Singapore’s VTL arrangements before their flights.

“Singapore’s experience from the vaccinated travel lane with Germany and Brunei has clearly given the country the confidence to expand the scheme,” said Philip Goh, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific. “This is a positive and promising development for the aviation and travel sector. The easing of the testing regime for vaccinated travellers on vaccinated travel lanes from 4 to 2 PCR tests will reduce travel costs. That’s an equally important and positive factor. These data-based decisions to open up borders progressively will certainly boost air travel recovery.”

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