Malaysia and Singapore will reopen their mutual border with a special Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) between KL International Airport and Changi Airport from Nov 29.
The reopening only covers air travel, and does not include land travel via the Causeway or Second Link.
Under the VTL, fully-vaccinated travellers will be able to travel between Singapore and Malaysia, and be subjected to Covid-19 tests instead of serving quarantine or a stay-at-home Notice. The border between the two countries has been closed since March 18, 2020.
The Singapore – Kuala Lumpur sector is one of the busiest passenger air routes in the world with over 30,000 flights in 2018 alone. Singapore Airlines has recently deployed its Airbus A380 to fly between the two cities which makes it the world’s shortest A380 flight at the moment.
As both countries have made good progress with vaccinating their population against Covid-19, the two governments have agreed to progressively resume cross border which will help revive the economy, restore people-to-people ties and strengthen the bilateral partnership. Malaysia has fully-vaccinated more than 75% of its population and in Singapore, more than 85% of its population have been fully-vaccinated.
Both governments are still in discussion to open up cross-border travel by land. They are also looking at launching a similar VTL scheme between the southern Malaysian state of Johor and Singapore in the near future.
The Malaysian government has also announced that it will open up the island of Langkawi for international tourists under a travel bubble from the 15th November 2021.
Besides Malaysia, Singapore had also announced VTL with 13 other countries which include the UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands, South Korea, Germany, Sweden, Finland, and Brunei.
All VTL travellers must take two COVID-19 PCR tests. A pre-departure test within 48 hours before departing to Singapore and obtain a negative test result; and an on-arrival test at Changi Airport and remain self-isolated until their test result is confirmed to be negative. Children aged 2 years and below in the calendar year are not required to undergo these tests.
Travellers must have been fully vaccinated and present their proof of vaccination issued in any VTL country or Singapore, regardless of which VTL country the traveller departs from. Travellers who are travelling to Singapore under the VTL must travel into Singapore on designated VTL flights.
Singapore expands VTL scheme – Update on Nov.15
Travellers from Indonesia and India will be able to enter Singapore under a quarantine-free travel scheme from Nov 29. In addition, travellers from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will be able to enter Singapore from Dec 6.
Indonesia has yet to open its borders for quarantine-free travel from Singapore. But travellers can travel without quarantine to and from India, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE, which have earlier opened its borders for vaccinated travellers from Singapore.
By Dec 6, Singapore will have a total of 21 VTLs. Singapore had earlier announced Vaccinated Travel Lanes with 16 other countries. Thirteen of these are already in effect, and three more with Malaysia, Sweden and Finland are due to start on Nov 29.
