Singapore on Friday said it has extended the vaccinated travel lane for flights from all Indian cities. Under the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL), eligible travellers are allowed into Singapore without quarantine requirement. Earlier, the service, launched on November 29, 2021, was applicable only for flights from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.
Now, more travellers from India, who are fully vaccinated, may use the VTL for quarantine-free travel, Singapore Tourism Board said in a statement. Travelling to Singapore from India for fully vaccinated travellers has become easier, with some prerequisites before departure, including a valid visa, a Vaccinated Travel Pass (VTP), stay of seven consecutive days in India or a VTL country and a mandatory RT-PCR test.
"The extension of VTL to Singapore from all Indian cities provides the much needed impetus to travel between the countries for all traveller types, whether for leisure, business or cruise. This is part of Singapore's calibrated and progressive approach in re-opening our borders," G B Srithar, STB Regional Director, IMESA (India, Middle East and South Asia), said in a release. Separately, Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group on Friday announced that it will convert all its flights from India to Singapore into vaccinated travel lane services from March 16.
Currently, it operates flights from eight points in India to Singapore. While existing daily VTL flights will continue to operate from Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai, SIA's all other India flights that arrive in Singapore from March 16 will progressively operate as VTL services, the company said in a separate release. These are flights from Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi, and Kolkata.
SIA Group said its low-cost subsidiary Scoot will also convert its non-VTL services from Amritsar, Coimbatore, Trivandrum, Tiruchirappalli, and Visakhapatnam into VTL. "Singapore's decision to expand its VTL arrangement to cover all points across India will be a welcome development for all our customers. We continue to see strong demand across India from customers who are waiting to enjoy convenient and quarantine-free travel to Singapore," Sy Yen Chen, General Manager of Singapore Airlines, said.
The expansion of SIA Group's VTL network is also perfectly timed with the re-launch of the airline's A380 services to Mumbai from March 14 and to Delhi in the coming months, he said. "We are thrilled to be able to bring our iconic super jumbo back to India. We are optimistic that this, along with the expansion of Singapore's VTL arrangement, will inspire even more confidence for international travel to and from India," Chen added. Travellers willing to travel on the VTL services need to apply for a VTP prior to their visa applications. VTP applications must be made between 3 and 60 calendar days before the intended date of entry into Singapore. On arrival into Singapore, travellers can enjoy quarantine-free stay after taking a supervised ART at a quick test centre within 24 hours of arrival and testing negative.
With PTI Inputs
