Singapore sets up vaccinated travel lanes with nine more countries

Last Friday, Singapore announced that it would open a ‘vaccinated travel lane’ (VTL) with South Korea, allowing vaccinated residents to travel between the two countries without quarantine from 15 November. Singapore Airlines will convert six flights it is operating between Singapore and Seoul into designated VTL services from 16 November.

Last Saturday, Transport Minister S Iswaran said vaccinated travellers will be able to fly to Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Britain and the United States from 19 October.

Mayumi Soh of Pinsent Masons MPillay, the Singapore joint law venture between MPillay and Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law, said: “This will undoubtedly be welcome news to many, who may not have travelled for leisure since early 2020. Travellers who intend to travel on these flights should consider however what the prevailing COVID-19 measures in their destination countries are, and what steps, if any, will have to be taken if they contract COVID-19 on these trips.”

Under the VTL scheme, travellers are required to present verifiable, authenticated digital proof of vaccination and must have remained in the country of departure or Singapore in the 14 days prior to departure for Singapore. 

They have to fly on designated VTL flights and take up to four Covid-19 tests, including one pre-departure test and one on-arrival test.

Singapore launched its VTLs with Germany and Brunei in September. Before that, Singapore reopened borders to travellers from very low-risk countries, including China.

Singapore has taken a series of travel measures during the Covid-19 pandemic including a ‘fast lane’ and reciprocal green lane (RGL) scheme for essential business travel, and air travel ‘bubbles’ with specific countries.