Singapore Airlines Announces New Quarantine-Free Flights from the U.S.

If the Lion City has been on your bucket list, you're in luck! Starting yesterday, Oct. 19, travelers from select U.S. airports can visit Singapore without the hassle of quarantine. Singapore Airlines' new Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) flight service covers Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle flights.

Additionally, travelers making multi-stops within the VTL corridor—which includes destinations in Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, Brunei, and Germany—will be able to avoid quarantine upon arrival in Singapore as long as they have spent at least 14 days within one or more countries within the VTL.

"The SIA Group supports all measures to reopen Singapore to quarantine-free international travel," said Lee Lik Hsin, executive vice president commercial for Singapore Airlines. "This will enable the safe and gradual recovery of Changi Airport as a major air hub, backed by rising vaccination rates and confidence in the robust health and safety measures across the end-to-end customer journey."

"Singapore's expansion of the VTL arrangements to 11 countries is great news for our customers, who can now reunite with their loved ones more easily or finally go on that overseas holiday," he added.

However, the country isn't rushing anything. Singapore's VTL was trialed in early September, with safe travel corridors opened between Singapore, Brunei, and Germany.  Over 3,100 travelers entered Singapore between Sept. 8 and Oct. 8. All travelers were required to show proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test taken before their flight, followed by repeated testing once they touched down in Singapore. Only two positive cases were identified and subsequently isolated, preventing further spread to the general population.

In place of quarantine, travelers from the U.S. arriving on VTL flights will also need to show proof of complete vaccination or produce a negative PCR test result taken within 48 of the flight and then again once they've landed in Singapore.

Currently, Singapore holds a "Level 3: Reconsider Travel" advisory from the U.S. Department of State due to COVID-19 case levels. According to John Hopkins University data, Singapore's new daily case rate has rapidly increased for the last month and has a seven-day average of 3,145 new daily cases. By comparison, the country reported a seven-day average of 255 new daily cases on Sept. 8, 2021.