SIA website experiences 'technical difficulties' after new VTL announcements

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Singapore Airlines' (SIA) website met with technical difficulties on 9 October following the announcement of new vaccinated travel lanes (VTLs) by the multi-ministry taskforce. According to multiple media reports including Channel NewsAsia, a notice went up on SIA's website around 3 pm last Saturday explaining that the team is working hard to fix the technical difficulties. Consumers were urged to visit the website again later or contact their local SIA office should they require urgent assistance.

Singapore expanded its VTLs to US, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the UK on 9 October. Another VTL to South Korea was also launched the day before. Minister-in-charge of trade relations, S. Iswaran, said in a statement that when fully implemented, Singapore would have established VTLs with 11 countries - two in North America, seven in Europe and two in Asia.

Collectively, these countries accounted for about 10% of Singapore's pre-COVID annual passenger arrivals at Changi Airport, he said adding that they rank among the country's top 20 trading partners. "They have significant investments, a strong business presence, and sizeable communities in Singapore. It is, therefore, important that we reconnect with them early," Iswaran explained.

While still a far cry from where Singapore was pre-COVID, Iswaran said the VTLs are "a significant step" in the reopening of Singapore's borders, and crucial to reclaiming and rebuilding the country's status as an international aviation hub with global connectivity. Singapore currently has VTLs with Germany and Brunei.

Shortly after the announcement of the new VTL arrangements, SIA Group said it will operate VTL services from Amsterdam, Barcelona, Copenhagen, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Paris, and Rome starting 19 October. SIA’s VTL services from Seoul will begin on 16 November. The airline also explained in a Facebook post that while it has added more resources to its customer servicing points, its agents may take longer than usual to respond to queries or attend to customers. It also created a dedicated page for VTL flights. Lee Lik Hsin, executive VP commercial, Singapore Airlines, said the country's expansion of the VTL arrangements to 11 countries is great news for customers.

Separately, acording to Expedia Group's APAC head of communications, Lavinia Rajaram, said South Korea is a highly popular travel destination among Singaporeans and its historical data has shown that the city of Seoul has been the top five most travelled to destination for the year-end period prior to 2020. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Expedia for statistics on countries of the new VTLs.

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