Singapore to extend vaccinated travel lanes to Australia and Switzerland from Nov 8

Oct 26, 2021

SINGAPORE will welcome vaccinated travellers from Australia and Switzerland without the need for a quarantine from Nov 8, Transport Minister S Iswaran said on Tuesday (Oct 26).

The two countries join an existing 11 that are part of Singapore's vaccinated travel lanes (VTL), as the Republic takes "calibrated" steps to reopen its borders.

"This is still a fraction of the countries that Changi Airport was connected with pre-Covid-19. To rebuild the aviation hub, we will need to steadily restore safe two-way quarantine-free travel with more countries and regions," Iswaran told reporters during a briefing.

"We are in discussions with other partners, including regional neighbours, to reopen safely to each other and restore our close connectivity," he added.

With the additions, the current VTL quota of 3,000 daily arrivals will also be increased to 4,000, said Iswaran.

Under the VTL, fully-vaccinated travellers from these countries only need to undergo a Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test upon arrival in Singapore.

While vaccinated travellers from Singapore are similarly allowed to enter Switzerland without the need for a quarantine, Australia is relaxing its border controls only for fully vaccinated Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate families from Nov 8.

Nonetheless, Singapore is the second country that Australia has reopened its borders to, after New Zealand.

In a statement, Ministry of Transport (MOT) said it expects students and business pass holders from Singapore to be able to enter Australia after the country has finalised the arrangement for their entry.

Other travellers from Singapore would not be able to travel to Australia until a later stage, the ministry added.

Iswaran said the VTLs will allow the more than 50,000 Singaporeans living in Australia and the over 25,000 Australians living in Singapore to reconnect with their loved ones after nearly two years of physical separation.

"We look forward to working with Australia to progressively rebuild travel between our two countries," he said.

Australia was among Singapore's top 10 markets for annual passenger arrivals at Changi Airport before the Covid-19 pandemic, accounting for about 4 per cent of total arrivals in 2019, according to MOT.

As for Switzerland, MOT noted that there is a strong business presence of over 1,000 Swiss companies operating in Singapore, including large banks, insurance companies and industry corporates. There are also about 3,000 Swiss expatriates living in Singapore.

Singapore's first VTLs were launched on Sep 8 for Brunei and Germany, and this was later extended to 8 other countries - in Europe and North America - from Oct 19. The VTL to South Korea will open on Nov 15.

As at Oct 25, 15,099 travellers from the 11 countries have been issued vaccinated travel passes (VTP); and so far, 5,134 VTP holders have entered Singapore. Among them, there have been 5 confirmed imported cases of Covid-19.

VTL travellers must have remained in one or more of the VTL countries in the last 14 consecutive days prior to departure in Singapore, and they must take a pre-departure test as well as on-arrival test at Changi Airport and self-isolate until their test is confirmed to be negative.

Children aged 12 and below who are not vaccinated will also be allowed to travel on the lane into Singapore if they are accompanied by a VTL-eligible traveller.

Applications for VTPs for travellers from Australia and Switzerland will open on Nov 1.