Changi Airport Singapore Airlines Travel VTL

Germany – Singapore VTL Report: Part 3 – The Changi Airport arrival process

The final hurdle on the journey for VTL passengers is the arrival immigration and COVID-19 testing process at Changi Airport.

Here's what you can expect.

No sooner had our inaugural Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) flight from Frankfurt to Singapore departed, it seemed like time to start our descent into Changi Airport. Just as that was happening, the cabin crew made an announcement, now required by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore…

“This is a message for all Vaccinated Travel Lane travellers.

“Passengers entering Singapore under the Vaccinated Travel Lane will be required to undergo on-arrival and post-arrival COVID-19 tests. Failure to undergo the tests may constitute an offence under the Infectious Diseases Act.”

Announcement before landing

It’s not the friendliest welcome home (or to Singapore, for visitors), but we all knew it was coming and began to shuffle our documents together again after 13 hours of relative peace from being asked to prove anything to anyone!

We touched down on Changi Airport’s runway 20R at 5.36pm local time, and after just five minutes we docked at Gate B5 in Terminal 3.

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An announcement informed us that disembarkation would be conducted row-by-row. This doesn’t appear to apply to First Class and Business Class cabins, presumably because there is more than sufficient social distancing.

After a short goodbye from the crew it was onwards to see how the VTL arrival process works in action.

Fun fact: We can’t guarantee that B5 is the ‘designated’ VTL arrival gate, but this morning SQ331 from Munich, the second Germany – Singapore VTL service, arrived at the same gate.

That would make sense because it’s then the shortest walk into the north immigration hall, practically straight down the escalator, where the process begins.