India, Singapore may resume commercial flights soon

It is learned that Singapore is in talks with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of External Affairs to resume scheduled commercial services with two daily flights each from Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai.

So far repatriation is taking place only through Air India under Vande Bharat Mission. Singapore has announced that from November 29 it will open its Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) for India and once the program is in place, there will be no need for quarantine for vaccinated travelers.

Meanwhile, vaccinated travelers can now enjoy quarantine-free access to Singapore from the following countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Additionally, VTL flights from Indonesia will start from 29 November 2021, as well as to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from 6 December 2021.

Travel from Singapore to these countries can take place on any Singapore Airlines flight (except flights in Australia, which have specific requirements), while travel to Singapore from these countries must be on specified Vaccination Travel Lane (VTL) flights. Travel to multiple VTL countries is allowed within a single trip.

Sources say that talks for resuming commercial flights between Singapore and India are progressing in the right direction and a decision may be taken soon.

As of now there are no passenger flights between Singapore and India.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is currently in Singapore and is in talks with the top leadership, during their talks the restoration of connectivity also came to the fore.

Jaishankar met the Transport Minister of Singapore yesterday and discussed expanding travel arrangements between the two countries.

Jaishankar tweeted, “Started my Singapore tour by meeting Transport Minister S Easwaran. Discussed expanding travel arrangements between the two countries.”

There is a huge demand for passengers from both the sides. Technically, repatriation flights cannot be covered under Singapore’s VTL arrangement and the program only covers scheduled commercial flights.