Travellers from Thailand, Cambodia, Fiji, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Turkey may enter Singapore under the quarantine-free vaccinated travel lanes (VTLs) next month, joining 21 other countries that are already on the programme.
The scheme will kick in on December 14 for travellers from Thailand, while for the rest it will be enabled from December 16.
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), arrivals from all 27 VTL countries accounted for about 60 per cent of the total daily arrivals at Changi Airport pre-pandemic.
Along with the additional VTLs, Singapore will raise her daily VTL quota from 10,000 to 15,000 travellers.
According to a CNA report, transport minister S Iswaran said that Singapore’s VTL quotas amount to about one-third of the total pre-Covid flows from these countries.
He added that the VTL scheme will reconnect Singapore with the world while managing the public health risk, and the government will “closely monitor the global public health situation” and “impose additional safeguards as necessary”.
CAAS commented that the “successful implementation of the VTL without compromising public health” gave it the “confidence” to extend the scheme to more countries.
All six VTL countries announced on November 26 have “similar or lower Covid-19 incidence rates” than Singapore and the other VTL countries, it said.
Thailand, Cambodia, Maldives and Sri Lanka have reopened their borders to quarantine-free general travel for vaccinated people.
Fiji will reopen her borders to vaccinated travellers from 40 “partner countries”, including Singapore, from December 1, noted CAAS.
“The VTL with Fiji will allow fully vaccinated travellers from other VTL countries which Fiji has opened to, such as Australia, Canada, France, (South) Korea, the UK and the US, to extend their trip to Singapore without quarantine,” added CAAS.
