Flying in the Covid-19 era: what a Singapore-South Korea trip under quarantine-free air travel corridor arrangement entails

Singaporean tourists now have a range of countries to head to, as long as they are inoculated, via the vaccinated travel lane scheme. Among them is South Korea

Proof of vaccination, insurance and a negative PCR test were some of the hurdles this writer required to take advantage of the arrangement and fly to Incheon

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Singapore has set up a vaccinated travel lane with South Korea. Tourists from the Lion City landing at Incheon International Airport (pictured) will not have to quarantine. Photo: LightRocket via Getty Images

Mavis Teo

Published: 3:15pm, 20 Nov 2021

Camera shutters went off in rapid succession as we entered the Incheon International Airport arrivals hall.

None of us passengers on Korean Air flight KE646 from Singapore was a hallyu (or Korean wave) celebrity and none was ready for the media scrum, having taken an unusual six-hour flight and undergone stringent document and immigration checks.

“People here are very excited because you are the first foreign tourists they have seen in a long time,” explained an airport official.

Not that many of us were actual tourists. Of the 54 Singaporeans that arrived on that November 15 morning flight, more than half were press or travel agency representatives. And of the 120 passengers, the majority seemed to be Koreans.

Airliners on the tarmac at Incheon International Airport, Seoul, South Korea. Photo: Getty Images

The press and travel reps were being hosted by the Korean Tourism Organization (Singapore) on the first vaccinated travel lane (VTL) familiarisation tour to the country. Singapore began opening VTLs – bilateral quarantine-free air travel corridors for travellers fully vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus with various countries – in September.