AS the year-end holiday season draws close, Singapore Airlines (SIA) will be launching “seasonal flights” to Vancouver and Seattle between Dec 2, 2021 and Feb 15, 2022. It will also be converting its daily direct flights from San Francisco to Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) services from next Wednesday (Oct 20). 

The direct flights to Vancouver marks the first time the national carrier is offering flights to Canada since April 2009 when services were suspended amid a global economic slowdown then. 

Vancouver will also be a stopover for travellers headed to and from Seattle. Flights from Singapore to Vancouver and Seattle will be available four times a week.

There will be Seattle-Vancouver-Singapore flights twice a week that will operate under the VTL, providing eligible customers with quarantine-free entry into Singapore; those that are ineligible to enter Singapore under the VTL arrangement can do so via non-VTL flights that are available twice a week.

Tickets for the Singapore-Seattle-Vancouver flights will be made available for sale through various distribution channels from noon on Tuesday (Oct 12) while tickets for the San Francisco-Singapore flights are already available. Vaccinated travel pass applications open on Oct 12.

“These provide additional quarantine-free travel options for customers who wish to travel to and from North America, on top of the earlier announced VTL services from Los Angeles and New York,” said SIA in a press statement on Monday (Oct 11).

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JoAnn Tan, SIA’s senior vice-president of marketing planning said that these flights will allow SIA customers to “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,” Tan added.

The addition of San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver expands SIA Group’s VTL network to 17 cities. SIA will operate VTL services from Amsterdam, Barcelona, Copenhagen, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Paris, and Rome from Oct 19, and Seoul from Nov 16.

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 Oct 20.

SIA will deploy the 253-seater Airbus 350-900, with 42 business class seats, 24 premium economy class seats and 187 economy class seats, on the Singapore-Vancouver-Seattle service.

Flight SQ28 will depart from Singapore to Vancouver International Airport before arriving at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Flight SQ29, SIA’s twice-weekly designated VTL service will depart from Seattle and arrive in Vancouver on the same day. It will then depart from Vancouver and arrive in Singapore the following day while SQ27 will be the non-VTL Seattle-Vancouver-Singapore service that will operate twice a week. 

On the San Francisco service, SIA will operate the 161-seat Airbus 350-900 ULR with 67 business class seats and 94 premium economy class seats.

Multi-city itineraries within VTL countries are allowed if customers meet the eligibility criteria. Customers travelling on the VTL flights can also enjoy fuss-free transfers via Singapore Changi Airport to 59 destinations within the SIA Group network.

READ MORE:

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