It’s time for Singaporeans with that unmistakable wanderlust itch to rejoice – there is a light at the end of the tunnel after all.
During an interview with radio DJ Elliott Danker at Money FM 89.3, Transport Minister, Mr Ong Ye Kung, hinted that bilateral travel corridors could possibly open as soon as July 2021 but only for passengers who are vaccinated.
This is part of the immense effort the government has taken to find ways to revive air travel and to help the ailing aviation sector bounce back as fast as they could.
As Mr Ong have pointed out during the interview, passenger volume at Changi Airport is only at 2.6% of pre-COVID-19 levels.
He also forewarned that it might take the aviation sector some time to recover, and that we shouldn’t expect a “V-shaped” recovery.
COVID-19 Measures are Killing Travel; Travel Corridors Might Just be the Solution
During the interview, Mr Ong emphasized that the current government’s COVID-19 measures, including the stay-at-home notices and other quarantine measures, are killing travel despite being necessary.
He added, “Nobody is going to come to Singapore and stay for 14 days.”
Due to this, it is imperative to set up travel corridors or air travel bubbles (ATBs) to places with low to moderate infection rates, and an ongoing vaccination effort as soon as possible so as to kick start the recovery process.
However, such arrangements, according to Mr Ong, requires reciprocity.
“Unfortunately, we are the only safe place in the world that is opening up to others like that,” he said, adding that “If only others start to do it, then we’ll have a bubble, you have reciprocity, you can start to travel. And I hope sometime this year we can do that.”
He also noted that Singapore has allowed travellers to unilaterally fly in from countries that already have their respective COVID-19 situations under control, including China, New Zealand and Australia.
This careful and strategic opening up of borders to the world hasn’t led to any community infections in Singapore.
Another ATB was actually planned between Singapore and Hong Kong, and the agreement was already signed.
Unfortunately, another spike in COVID-19 cases in HK has suspended the roll-out of the plan indefinitely, but according to Mr Ong on 5 March, the HK-SG ATB plan will only go ahead “when conditions are right”.
How Does the Vaccine Passports Factor in?
In an interview with The Straits Times on 11 March, the director of the International Air Transport Association (Iata), Mr Alexandre de Juniac, said, “We at Iata are already working with states to design and plan protocols and road maps for the reopening of borders.”
One of the plans Iata has in mind is the mobile health verification app, called “Travel Pass”.
The app works by documenting a traveller’s vaccination history and COVID-19 results, and linking the info with the traveller’s digital identification which comes complete with the traveller’s photo and passport information, making cross-border safety checks a lot smoother.
In fact, the app is going to be put to the test real soon, with Singapore Airlines (SIA) planning to use it on its flights from Singapore to London on 15 March.
Following suit, 30 other airlines will also test out the app in the next 2 months.
On the downside, the Travel Pass app is unfortunately only available for iOS phones for now.
Besides Iata’s Travel Pass, several other countries are poised to roll out their own versions of a vaccine passport soon as well.
Among the first in the world to do so, China has just rolled its international vaccine health certificate that details a traveller’s COVID-19 vaccination, along with nucleic acid and antibody test results, in hopes that other countries would accept it.
Rolling out a vaccine passport might be tougher in Western countries, such as in Germany, as debate heats up over “special privileges” given to vaccinated people.
Featured Image: SpaceKris / Shutterstock.com
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