First flights under expanded VTL scheme arrive here

About 250 passengers entered Singapore yesterday morning after taking the first two flights under the expanded quarantine-free travel scheme for travellers vaccinated against Covid-19.

Flight SQ329 from the Netherlands, operated by Singapore Airlines, touched down at Changi Airport at about 6.35am. The Straits Times understands that around 80 of the passengers on board entered Singapore.

About an hour and a half later, SQ317 from London landed.

The first flight had departed from Amsterdam at about 11.30am local time, or 5.30pm Singapore time, on Tuesday.

The Straits Times team at Terminal 3, where the flight landed, noticed that those who arrived were mainly single travellers or couples.

There were at least three families with children. There was an equal mix of Asians and Caucasians.

Movement controls were tight at the arrival hall. Passengers were directed through an area cordoned off from the public.

They were seen being ushered by airport staff, who were clad in disposal gowns, masks and gloves, to take a Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test before being directed to a specific taxi stand or pick-up point for their transport out of the airport.

Family members or friends who had come to receive passengers were told to wait in a separate area.

Only three people were seen at the waiting area when ST was there between 6.35am and 7.50am.

One of the flight's passengers, Mr Paul Wolhoff, 58, said he was in Singapore with his wife Winnie Yeo, 59, to attend his mother-in-law's funeral and visit their relatives here.

"Normally we visit (Singapore) every year during Chinese New Year," the banking consultant said.

But the Dutch nationals could not do so due to the pandemic.

Mr Wolhoff also said they were initially intending to make use of the travel scheme to visit Singapore again during next year's Chinese New Year, but had to bring forward their trip after receiving news of his mother-in-law's death.

The Netherlands is among eight countries that Singapore opened up Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs) to from Tuesday. The others are the United States, Canada, Denmark, Britain, France, Italy and Spain. Singapore had earlier opened up VTLs to Germany and Brunei on Sept 8.

The VTL scheme allows vaccinated travellers on designated flights to enter the Republic quarantine-free. But they must take a PCR test before departure and when they land at Changi Airport.

The eight countries that Singapore opened up to from Tuesday, as well as Germany, have also allowed travellers from the Republic to fly over on any flight without having to serve quarantine there.

Singapore will also jointly launch VTLs with South Korea on Nov 15.

The first VTL flight from the US, SQ23, has departed from New York and is scheduled to land here at 5.20am today.

Ms Tina Di Cicco, who is on the flight, said she and her husband were returning to the Republic after visiting their two sons in New York, where one of them is working and the other is studying.

The entrepreneur and investor, who is an Employment Pass holder in her 50s, has been living with her husband in Singapore for about 11 years. Her sons had previously studied here before leaving.

Ms Di Cicco and her husband had originally planned to return here via Germany, where they would have to quarantine for 21 days. But when the VTL flights from the US later opened, they booked the first flight back.

Ms Di Cicco said: "The VTL opened a world of possibilities for people to see their families and do business again."

Editorial note: The story has been updated for clarity.