Singapore flight bookings surged to beat end of VTLs

Singapore flight bookings surged to beat end of VTLs
Singapore flight bookings surged to beat end of VTLs
Avatar of Harry Johnson
Written by Harry Johnson

The vaccinated travel lanes ( VTLs) were introduced in early September, allowing vaccinated travelers to Singapore to avoid being subject to a stay-home notice if they instead underwent multiple COVID-19 PCR tests.

New report reveals there was a surge in flight bookings from and to Singapore on December 22 last year, as travelers rushed to beat the suspension of Singapore’s vaccinated travel lanes (VTLs), which was implemented to curb the spread of the Omicron variant.

The VTLs were introduced in early September, allowing vaccinated travelers to Singapore to avoid being subject to a stay-home notice if they instead underwent multiple COVID-19 PCR tests. By late December, Singapore had VTLs in place with 24 countries.

On December 22, Singapore announced a freeze on VTL ticket sales from midnight that evening until 21st January, when there will be a 50% cap on the previous quota. However, travelers who already held a ticket for a VTL flight could continue to enter Singapore under the VTL on their originally planned date. That day, outbound ticket sales jumped to over four times the daily average of the previous week and inbound more than doubled.

During the following week (December 23 – December 29) tickets issued for inbound travel fell by 51% and outbound fell by 76%, compared to the week before.

Analysis of the top source markets for Singapore revealed that all of the top ten suffered a substantial, double-digit drop in bookings, with the exception of Hong Kong, which suffered an 8% drop and Dubai, which was 20% up on the previous week.

Analysis of the top ten destinations revealed an even greater decline in outbound flight bookings the week after the VTL suspension, with the exception of the Netherlands, which experienced an 11% increase.

The vaccinated travel lanes have been incredibly helpful in facilitating travel to and from Singapore, as seven of the top ten origin markets and nine of the top ten destinations are VTL countries. I suspect the resilience of the Netherlands as a destination is influenced by KLM, which is currently the foreign carrier with the largest share of the Singapore market, by number of seats.

About the author

Avatar of Harry Johnson

Harry Johnson

Harry Johnson has been the assignment editor for eTurboNews for mroe than 20 years. He lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is originally from Europe. He enjoys writing and covering the news.

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