Upcoming Australia-Singapore quarantine-free travel plan excites businesses, airlines
CARRIERS Singapore Airlines and Qantas Airways are increasing flights as a quarantine-free travel arrangement between Singapore and Australia seems set to launch soon for students and business travellers.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that the country was near to coming to a quarantine-free travel arrangement with Singapore. "We anticipate that being able to be achieved within the next week or so, as we would open up to more visa class holders coming out of Singapore," stated the leader at a Qantas event on Friday.
The Singapore arrangement will be similar to the travel bubble Australia established with the South Island of New Zealand this week, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The talks are focused on allowing vaccinated students and business travellers to travel freely between Australia and Singapore as the first step, before opening up to tourists.
Such an arrangement, which Singapore's Ministry of Transport has not confirmed, is different from the city-state's quarantine-free vaccinated travel lane (VTL) arrangement that is for all and sundry from a total of 11 countries currently.
S Iswaran, Singapore's Minister for Transport, said in a Facebook post shortly after Morrison's announcement that the Republic looks forward to working with Australia to progressively rebuild travel between the two countries.
Kate Baldock, an executive director at the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, told The Business Times (BT) that there has been excitement across the Australian business community following Morrison's announcement, as businesses seek to reconnect with the Australian market in person.
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"Singapore is Australia's largest two-way trading partner in South-east Asia; and as the Australian Chamber of Commerce, we have seen how this has impacted all our members, from large multinationals to start-ups and single person entities," she added.
The chamber has been calling for the safe resumption of travel between borders that were closed in April 2020.
An Australian National University Singapore Students' Association spokesperson told BT that most of the Singaporean students there are a bit apprehensive about the announcement, considering the volatile situation, "but we wholeheartedly welcome today's news".
It is estimated about half of the Singaporean students at that university are stuck in Singapore, and the spokesperson said they will be very excited to commence in-person learning. "Students in Australia are also looking forward to returning home and visiting family after nearly two years," the spokesperson added.
There were about 6,000 Singaporean students enrolled in Australian educational institutions as at July, according to statistics from the Australian Trade and Investment Commission website, a sharp decline from 8,000 in 2019.
SIA C6L on Friday announced its flagship Airbus A-380 aircraft will be resuming Singapore-Sydney flights, with the superjumbo jet operating daily from Singapore to Sydney from Dec 1. Fitted with 471 seats each, SIA's A-380 aircraft include 6 suites, 78 business class, 44 premium economy class and 343 economy class seats.
It is offering 31 flights a week to Sydney and Melbourne, with Singapore-Melbourne ticket sales to open on Oct 22 evening.
Highlighting that SIA has operated almost 4,000 passenger flights between Singapore and Australia since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, SIA regional vice-president Louis Arul observed a "vast majority" of such passengers were Australians wanting to return home.
He added that SIA has also operated some 3,000 cargo-only flights to keep key trade channels open, allowing essential medical supplies and Covid-19 vaccines to be delivered.
Separately, Australia's flag carrier Qantas said the Singapore-to-Sydney flights are due to resume from Nov 23, or 4 weeks earlier than scheduled.
Qantas's A-330 aircraft will be operating 3 days a week, with services to ramp-up to daily from Dec 18, 2021. Its low-cost carrier arm, Jetstar, will resume flights from Melbourne and Darwin to Singapore from Dec 16, 2021.
The increase in the number of flights comes hot on the heels of Morrison's announcement, and ahead of the international borders in New South Wales and Victoria opening up from Nov 1 to vaccinated Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate families.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in an Oct 22 Facebook post said he was "delighted to hear that Australia will be allowing entry to visa holders from Singapore", in response to Morrison's announcement.
"Look forward to resuming close connectivity between our countries, as we move towards an endemic Covid future," said PM Lee, noting robust economic and investment links as well as warm people-to-people ties between Australia and Singapore.
SIA shares were trading S$0.05 or 0.95 per cent higher at S$5.29 as at 4.50pm on Friday.
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