Travelers to be allowed to transit through Singapore’s Changi Airport from June 2

Currently, foreign passengers may only transit through Singapore if they are on repatriation flights. The Straits Times/Asia News Network/DESMOND WEE

SINGAPORE — Travelers will gradually be allowed to transit through Changi Airport from June 2, as Singapore embarks on its phased exit from the circuit breaker period.

The move is part of the strategy to progressively reopen air transport to meet the needs of Singapore’s economy and people, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said on Wednesday (May 20).

Currently, foreign passengers may transit through Singapore only if they are on repatriation flights arranged by their governments.

Airlines will have to submit proposals for transfer lanes in Changi Airport to CAAS.

The proposals will be evaluated based on aviation safety, public health considerations and the health of passengers and crew.

Stringent measures will also be implemented to make sure that transit passengers remain in designated facilities within the transit area and do not mix with other passengers at Changi Airport.

Airport staff interacting with passengers will have to don personal protective equipment, while existing precautionary measures will remain in force.

Air traffic here has plummeted since all short-term visitors from anywhere in the world were disallowed entry to or transit through Singapore on March 23.

Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said earlier this month that Changi Airport now handles only around 100 arrival and 700 departure passengers a day.

In comparison, Changi Airport handled more than 170,000 passengers a day last May, while daily flights have fallen from 7,400 before the virus outbreak to just 80.

International air travel, brought to a standstill by the Covid-19 pandemic, has begun to resume at a trickle.

China and South Korea opened a tightly controlled travel corridor between Seoul and 10 Chinese regions earlier this month, while Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania lifted travel restrictions among the three Baltic countries last Friday.

But concerns remain over the lack of global consensus on what safeguards should be implemented across the board by airlines and airports to prevent new waves of infection.

Yesterday, the Airports Council International (ACI) World and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) called on governments to ensure that any new measures introduced are supported by scientific evidence and consistent across the world.

The two industry groups represent airports and airlines respectively.

“There is currently no single measure that could mitigate all the risks of restarting air travel,” said ACI World director general Angela Gittens.

“But we believe a globally-consistent, outcome-based approach represents the most effective way of balancing risk mitigation with the need to unlock economies and to enable travel.”