Singapore allows booking of new tickets on India VTL flights

A month ago, Singapore Airlines (SIA) had announced that it would stop accepting new bookings for all VTL flights into Singapore scheduled between December 22 and January 20

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Singapore has restarted booking of new tickets on select-bilateral flights to India under the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) agreement. This, after Singapore had decided to temporarily suspend booking of designated VTL flights till January 20. A month ago, Singapore Airlines (SIA) had announced that it would stop accepting new bookings for all VTL flights into Singapore scheduled between December 22 and January 20.

SIA in an update said that starting January 21, travellers from India were allowed to book VTL flights for quarantine-free travel into Singapore. The airline currently operates select VTL flights from India from Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai. Vistara is operating VTL flights from Mumbai, while Chennai only operates one VTL flight, which SIA operates. Delhi has one VTL flight and rest all are non-VTL flights. All the VTL flights from India are operational daily.

Placing regulatory restrictions, the Singapore government last month had said that it would reduce the VTL quotas and ticket sales for travel after January 20, 2022 temporarily. For flights, the total ticket sales were also touted to be capped at 50 per cent of the allocated quota.

VTL flights allowed quarantine free travel to the island-state for fully vaccinated travellers. SIA had commenced passenger flight services from eight Indian cities, including daily VTL services from Chennai, Delhi, and Mumbai from November 29, providing eligible customers with quarantine-free entry into Singapore.

Eligibility and requirement for flights to India from Singapore

Pre-departure: A RT-PCR test taken within 72 hours before departure. Test results must be uploaded on the Air Suvidha portal.

On-arrival: Travellers may be selected randomly to undergo an on-arrival PCR test.

Post-arrival: A RT-PCR test required on Day 8. Children aged below 5 are exempted.

The SIA Group operates VTL services from 34 cities in its global network to Singapore. With the addition of Perth from February 5, 2022, this number will increase to 35 cities. Also, only the India-Singapore route has VTL flight options, as VTLs are a Singapore government initiative. Flights from Singapore into India do not need to be VTLs.

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