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Singapore Airlines will operate two commercial repatriation flights to Darwin next month for returning Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate family members.
The Singapore Airlines flights will fly from Singapore to Darwin on 2 and 8 November 2021. All passengers will be required to quarantine at Howard Springs for 14 days after arrival.
While New South Wales is opening its international border from 1 November 2021 to fully vaccinated Australians, other states and territories will not be opening to quarantine-free international travel until later on. So, these Singapore Airlines flights into Darwin will be designed for Australians returning to states & territories such as the NT, WA, SA, Tasmania and Queensland which will likely still have closed international borders and will also not be allowing interstate travel from NSW next month.
Until now, Qantas has been operating repatriation flights to Darwin from cities around the world during the pandemic, on behalf of DFAT. But with Qantas shortly ramping up its own commercial international flights – now brought forward to restart from 1 November 2021 on some routes – it soon won’t have enough Boeing 787 Dreamliners to continue operating DFAT charter flights.
Unlike the Qantas repatriation flights, seats on these Singapore Airlines flights will be available to anyone who is eligible to enter Australia. You do not require a DFAT code or referral to book a seat on one of these flights.
Both flights will be operated by widebody aircraft and all available seats will be made available for sale. Unlike other inbound commercial flights into Australian cities (other than Sydney from 1 November), the number of seats will not be capped.
The repatriation flights will leave Singapore in the morning. This will allow passengers to connect through to Darwin from Singapore Airlines flights that arrive in Singapore early in the morning, including from Europe, the United States and South Africa.
If travelling from Europe or the United States to Australia via Singapore, you would need to be mindful that some flights into Singapore are designated Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) flights. You are allowed to transit through Singapore on a VTL flight, but you would need to meet all of the requirements to be eligible to board any VTL flight.
Seats on these Singapore Airlines repatriation flights to Darwin will go on sale on the Singapore Airlines website on Monday 18 October, and will be available until sold out.
