Singapore Airlines, Scoot to expand VTL network in Southeast Asia, India in coming weeks

Singapore Airlines and its low-cost carrier Scoot will expand its vaccinated travel lane (VTL) network in the coming weeks to connect 66 cities in 27 countries. "New VTL services will be added progressively to selected cities in Southeast Asia and India, as well as Athens, from Mar 16, 2022," the airlines' parent company SIA Group said on Tuesday. More non-VTL flights will also be converted to VTL flights for certain destinations, it added. Reporting its operating results for February, SIA Group said passenger capacity fell slightly to 44% of pre-COVID-19 levels. This is 2% lower than in January, "attributable to February being a shorter month", it said. Passenger capacity is expected to reach around 57% of what it was pre-COVID-19 by April this year. The group passenger load factor was 39.1% in February, a 0.9% drop from the month before. The figure is a 29.4% rise from the same time last year. VTL ticket sales remained subjected to a 50% reduction in arrival quotas in the first half of February. "On Feb 16, 2022, Singapore announced that it would remove the 50 per cent cap, and progressively increase the VTL quota for daily arrivals from 5,000 to 15,000, by Mar 4, 2022," said SIA Group. <br/>