Singapore Airlines (SIA) announced the expansion of its travel routes post-COVID, saying it will schedule flights four times a week to Vancouver in Canada and Seattle in the United States from December 2, 2021 to February 15, 2022.
Announcing the seasonal services, SIA said two of these weekly Seattle-Vancouver-Singapore flights will operate as vaccinated travel lane (VTL) services, providing eligible customers entry into Singapore without COVID-19 quarantine.
The addition of San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver expands the SIA Group’s VTL network to 17 cities in 11 countries, an official statement from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) read.
Flight SQ29, SIA’s twice-weekly designated vaccinated travel lane service, will depart from Seattle at 11am and arrive at 11.45am in Vancouver, before departing again at 1.15pm to arrive the next day at 10.05pm in Singapore.
From October 20, the airline will also convert its daily non-stop services from San Francisco to Singapore into designated vaccinated travel lane services.
?JoAnn Tan, Senior Vice President Marketing Planning, Singapore Airlines said, "SIA customers can enjoy even more seamless travel options to North America during the year-end holiday season. SIA will continue to monitor the demand for air travel, and adjust its services accordingly.”
SIA stated it will operate VTL services from Amsterdam, Barcelona, Copenhagen, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Paris, and Rome from October 19, 2021, and Seoul from November 16, 2021. These are on top of the existing VTL services from Bandar Seri Begawan, Frankfurt, and Munich. Scoot, SIA’s sister airline, will begin VTL flights from Berlin from October 20, 2021.
Transport Minister S Iswaran said in a press conference last week that the vaccinated travel lanes would restore "two-way quarantine-free travel".
Up to 3,000 travellers will initially be allowed to enter Singapore daily from all 11 vaccinated travel lane countries, he added.
Singapore Airlines also announced a partnership with California-based health and wellness retreat Golden Door to bring a new roster of health-focused meals, exercise, and well-being options to SIA customers on board its flights between Singapore and the USA.
The first menus and wellness content from the partnership will first be available on flight SQ37, the direct service from Los Angeles to Singapore, in January 2022. The programme will be progressively extended to SIA’s non-stop services from San Francisco, New York, and Seattle to Singapore.