Coronavirus: Singapore
Over 4,000 from Malaysia approved to fly here via travel lane
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
In just 14 hours after applications opened on Monday, more than 4,000 travellers from Malaysia were approved to enter Singapore under the air vaccinated travel lane (VTL) set up between the two countries.
Responding to media queries, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore said yesterday that 4,124 travellers from Malaysia had been issued vaccinated travel passes as at 23.59pm on Monday.
Malaysian travellers could apply for the pass, which allows them to fly between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore without quarantine from Nov 29, starting at 10am on Monday. Of the 4,124 approved travellers, 1,792 are short-term visitors and 2,332 are long-term pass holders.
On Monday, the SafeTravel website, where foreign travellers to Singapore can apply for the vaccinated travel pass, crashed despite the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority anticipating a surge in traffic.
Applications for travellers from Indonesia also opened at 10am that day, and the website failed when nearly 35,000 users tried to log in at the same time.
As at 23.59pm on Monday, 2,681 travellers from Indonesia had been approved to enter Singapore via the VTL that opens on Nov 29. Of these, 2,068 are short-term visitors.
Meanwhile, 1,126 travellers from India, nine from Finland, and 19 from Sweden were issued vaccinated travel passes. Applications to travel from these countries to Singapore also began on Monday, and the three VTLs will open on Nov 29.
So far, a total of 68,531 foreign travellers have received passes to enter Singapore via 18 VTLs. Three more VTLs, with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, start on Dec 6.
Of the 13 VTLs in operation, the most popular are those with the United Kingdom (12,139 passes issued), Germany (10,834) and the United States (9,968). The VTL with Germany began on Sept 8 and those with the UK and the US opened on Oct 19.
A total of 4,959 travellers from South Korea have been approved to enter Singapore via the VTL that began on Nov 15, and 5,964 from Australia have been approved for travel via the VTL that began on Nov 8.
