India, Singapore in talks to resume commercial flights soon

It is learnt that Singapore is in talks with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of External Affairs to restart scheduled commercial services with two daily flights each from Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai.

As of now, only repatriation is taking place through Air India, under the Vande Bharat mission. Singapore has announced that from November 29 it will open up its Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTL) for India and once the programme is in place there will be no need for quarantine for vaccinated passengers.

There is huge pent up demand for travellers from both sides. Technically, repatriation flights cannot be included under Singapore’s VTL arrangement and only scheduled commercial flights are included in this programme.

It is learnt Singapore is keen that Singapore airlines should restart partial operations to India. Sources say that talks for resumption of commercial flights between Singapore and India are moving in the right direction and there can be a decision soon.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is currently in Singapore and holding talks with top leadership, resumption of connectivity also came up during his talks.

Yesterday, Jaishankar met the Singapore transport minister and discussed enhancing travel arrangements between the two countries.

“Began my Singapore visit by meeting S. Iswaran, Minister of Transport. Discussed enhancing travel arrangements between the two countries,” Jaishankar tweeted.