Airlines to suspend sales of VTL air tickets; travellers who have bought tickets not affected
Airlines will no longer be allowed to sell new Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) flight tickets from Thursday (Dec 23) till Jan 20, as Singapore tightens its borders amid a rising number of imported Covid-19 cases.
The suspension of sales also apply to those travelling on the Singapore-Malaysia land VTL.
But eligible travellers who have earlier bought tickets will still be allowed to travel via the quarantine-free travel scheme.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced the new border measures on Wednesday (Dec 22). The move - the biggest setback in Singapore's attempt to reopen its borders so far - comes as the number of imported cases hit a new high since the emergence of the Omicron variant.
MOH said: "To limit our exposure to imported Omicron cases, we will impose limits on the number of VTL arrivals for the time being.
"We will also temporarily reduce the VTL quotas and ticket sales for travel after January 20."
More details will be provided by the authorities soon.
As at Monday, there are 71 confirmed Omicron cases detected in Singapore, with 65 imported cases and six local cases. The Ministry of Health has said that given Omicron's high transmissibility and spread to many parts of the world, Singapore should expect to find more Omicron cases at our borders and also within our community.
The VTL scheme allows fully vaccinated travellers from selected countries to enter Singapore without having to serve quarantine. This facilitates quarantine-free travel to countries which have earlier opened up to Singapore.
Worldwide, several countries have tightened both border and local restrictions in the face of the Omicron variant.
For example, Italy has increased its Covid-19 risk assessment of Singapore, and has thus banned tourists flying over from the Republic.
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