SINGAPORE – The first quarantine-free flights for vaccinated travellers from Kuala Lumpur, India and Indonesia landed at Changi Airport on Monday (Nov 29), amid growing fears that a new Covid-19 variant could force international borders to shut again.
The vaccinated travel lanes (VTLs) for Finland and Sweden are also due to kick off as planned on Monday.
News of the Omicron variant, which is assessed by the World Health Organisation to have a “very high” global risk, has in the past two days triggered Japan and Italy to announce plans to close their borders to foreigners.
The Republic’s move to reopen to travellers from India and Kuala Lumpur is especially significant, given that both were major markets for Changi Airport prior to the pandemic. While Indonesia was also a major market, it has not reopened its borders to Singapore yet.
Under the VTL, travellers vaccinated against…
