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Singapore will open “Vaccinated Travel Lanes” (VTL) with nine more countries from next week, following the successful launch of a travel bubble with Germany last month.
It’s great news for travellers in eligible countries. Unfortunately, Australia didn’t make the list. In fact, the new VTL arrangements could make it harder for Australians to return home from some countries via Singapore.
The original “VTL” between Singapore and Germany
Singapore launched its first VTL with Germany on 7 September 2021. Under this arrangement, fully vaccinated Singaporeans and Germans who had only been in one or both of these countries during the previous 14 days could fly to the other country on a designated “VTL flight” without having to quarantine on arrival.
Travellers would be required to get a series of COVID-19 tests, at their own expensive, and would not be allowed to travel if they returned a positive COVID-19 test before boarding. But this greatly expanded options for residents of both countries to travel to the other country.
A VTL from Brunei to Singapore subsequently launched from 15 September 2021, although this arrangement is only for one-way quarantine-free travel as Brunei still requires quarantine on its end for inbound passengers.
Singapore introduces VTL with 9 more countries
Last weekend, Singapore announced that it will soon launch Vaccinated Travel Lanes with a further nine countries. From 19 October 2021, Singapore will allow quarantine-free travel from seven European countries, Canada and the United States. It will also launch a VTL with South Korea from 15 November 2021.
Here’s the full list of VTL countries:
- Brunei (one-way only)
- Canada
- Denmark
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Netherlands
- South Korea
- Spain
- United Kingdom
- United States
Travellers taking advantage of these VTL will be allowed to take any flight from Singapore to the destination country. In most cases, vaccinated travellers won’t even need to get a pre-flight COVID-19 test except when travelling to Brunei, Italy, South Korea or the USA.
However, when travelling to Singapore from a VTL country, there will be designated VTL and non-VTL flights. Only passengers eligible for VTL flights will be allowed on these, even if transiting immediately onwards from Singapore to another international destination (such as Australia).
Requirements to use VTL flights
According to the Singapore Airlines website, passengers on VTL flights to Singapore need to meet the following criteria:
- Must have been only within VTL countries in the 14 days prior to the flight, including transit countries
- Be fully vaccinated with any vaccine recognised by the World Health Organisation
- Have an accepted vaccination certificate issued by a VTL country (Australian certificates do not count)
- Get a negative pre-departure COVID-19 test within 48 hours before departure
- Get a COVID-19 test on arrival in Singapore (this is not required if transiting to another international flight)
- Non-Singaporeans must also apply for a Vaccinated Travel Pass (VTP) 7-30 days prior to travel, but this is also not required if only transiting Singapore
Children under 12 who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated will be allowed to travel on VTL flights when accompanied by an adult who meets all the requirements.
Passengers who are not eligible to board a VTL flight can still travel to Singapore on a non-VTL flight before either transiting onwards to their final destination or completing quarantine in Singapore.
You can find a list of VTL flights operated by Singapore Airlines on the Singapore Airlines website. These include new Singapore Airlines flights between Singapore and Vancouver, which will operate via Seattle in one direction.
Other airlines including Scoot, Lufthansa, Air France and KLM are also operating VTL flights to Singapore.
Implications for Australian travellers
For vaccinated residents of eligible VTL countries, these VTL flights will make travelling to Singapore much easier. But for Australians travelling home with Singapore Airlines, they could unfortunately make things more difficult.
As you would need a COVID-19 vaccination certificate issued by a VTL country in order to board a VTL flight, Australian vaccination certificates would not be accepted.
If you’ve been vaccinated overseas, this may not be a problem for you. And if you’ve been vaccinated in Australia, it could still be possible to get a COVID-19 certificate issued by another country.
For example, the French government can issue COVID-19 vaccination certificates to foreigners who travel to France, so that their international immunisations will be recognised within France. You would need to provide proof of a travel itinerary that includes France to apply for one of these.
But if you aren’t able to meet the requirements to use a VTL flight, you’ll need to book a seat on a non-VTL flight when travelling to Australia via Singapore. There are still some available from places like Frankfurt and Singapore, and not all flights from the USA and Canada are designated as VTL flights – but you need to be careful what you’re booking.
All travellers transiting via Singapore still need to get a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 48 hours before the departure of their flight to Singapore, except when travelling from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan.
While Australia doesn’t yet make Singapore’s VTL list, perhaps this could be an indication of what’s to come if Australia and Singapore ever get around to launching that much-anticipated travel bubble.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Covid Vaccinated Lanes at airports
