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Singapore Airlines calls for travel bubble talks
Singapore’s national carrier is pushing for talks with Australian officials, so it can learn how a travel bubble will work.
The leaders of Singapore and Australia held face to face talks earlier this month, promising to work towards establishing two-way quarantine free travel.
Following the meeting, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong revealed the leaders “discussed how two-way travel between Singapore and Australia can eventually resume in a safe and calibrated manner when both sides are ready.”
His Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, added that “there is nothing impeding us getting on with the job of putting systems in place that will enable such a bubble to emerge between Singapore and Australia.”
Singapore Airlines has signalled that there hasn’t been enough urgency in putting those systems in place.
The carrier want to know more about the likely framework for quarantine-free travel, including the requirements for travellers.
Louis Arul, Singapore Airlines’ regional vice-president for Australia and the south-west Pacific, says the airline wants to start a discussion about the operational measures that will be necessary for a travel bubble.
The airline is pushing for talks with Australian officials, so it’s able to figure out how it will make two-way quarantine-free travel work.
He admits that the airline is no longer working towards a timeline on when the bubble will open, instead emphasising that how the bubble will work, will determine the start-date.
“It’s not just the airline, it’s the ground-handling agents, the airports, border force and so on,” he told The Australian.
“Everybody needs to sit down and discuss how we want to manage operations in such a situation.”
One-way quarantine free travel is already in place, for Australians travelling to Singapore.
The city-state allows travellers from Australia to bypass quarantine and simply take a COVID-19 test on arrival, and self-isolate in a hotel room until they receive a negative result.
Singapore Airlines continues to operate commercial flights in and out of Australia, but very few passengers are onboard. The flight are only financially viable due to the amount of cargo being carried.