Bangkok will be Singapore’s busiest VTL route with 47 weekly flights

With Singapore expanding its Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme to Thailand on 14th December 2021, the full schedule of designated quarantine-free flights from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport to Singapore Changi Airport has now been revealed.

What it shows isn’t too surprising – this will be the busiest city pair on the VTL network with up to 47 weekly flights and over 12,000 weekly seats, opening up two-way quarantine-free trips for Singapore residents to and from the likes of Bangkok and Phuket for the first time since March 2020.

The busiest VTL routes

Here’s how the top five VTL routes to Changi stack up by flight volumes and seating capacity, with the upcoming Bangkok – Singapore services topping the list by both metrics.

Top 5 VTL routes to Singapore
by capacity

There will be even more VTL flights on this route than there are from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, a city pair that boasted nearly 40% more flights pre-COVID.

In the Singapore – Bangkok direction, where travellers can take any flight they choose and still benefit from a quarantine-free arrival, there are 61 non-stop flight options per week, based on the first week of January 2022.

There are also 28 weekly flights from Singapore to Phuket, four to Chiang Mai, three to Krabi and three to Koh Samui.

Designated VTL flights

Two full-service airlines and two low-cost carriers will be operating designated VTL flights from Bangkok to Singapore.

• Jetstar Asia
• Scoot
• Singapore Airlines
• Thai Airways

Initially for the first two weeks or so of the Thailand VTL there will be 40 weekly designated VTL flights on the Bangkok – Singapore route operated by these four airlines, as shown below.

14th December 2021 – 31st December 2021

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	TG403 777-200
BKK 08:00		SIN 11:15
	SQ705 A350 Regional
BKK 09:50		SIN 13:15
	TR607 787-8
BKK 11:55		SIN 15:35
	SQ707 A350
BKK 12:15		SIN 15:45
	3K516 A320
BKK 13:35		SIN 17:10
	TR611 A321neo
BKK 18:10		SIN 21:50
	3K514 A320
BKK 21:20		SIN 00:50*

* Next day
3K516 on Mondays and 3K514 on Saturdays are subject to regulatory approval

From 1st January 2022, Thai Airways changes its daily TG803 VTL flight to the Boeing 787-8, while Singapore Airlines adds a third daily flight operating in the afternoon (SQ709), bringing the route up to 47 weekly VTL services as shown below.

1st January 2022 – 26th March 2022

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	TG403 787-8
BKK 08:00		SIN 11:15
	SQ705 A350 Regional
BKK 09:50		SIN 13:15
	TR607 787-8
BKK 11:55		SIN 15:35
	SQ707 A350
BKK 12:15		SIN 15:45
	3K516 A320
BKK 13:35		SIN 17:10
	SQ709 A350
BKK 15:40		SIN 19:15
	TR611 A321neo
BKK 18:10		SIN 21:50
	3K514 A320
BKK 21:20		SIN 00:50*

* Next day
3K516 on Mondays and 3K514 on Saturdays are subject to regulatory approval

As you can see there are timings throughout the day, with Thai Airways kicking things off in the morning for the early risers at 8am, getting you to Changi in time for lunch and offering a half-day ‘work from home’ (or ‘clear of self-isolation in time for dinner’) option.

At the tail end for those wanting to maximise their time in Bangkok, or taking domestic flights to the city earlier in the day prior to their VTL flight, Jetstar offers a 9.20pm departure on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Before COVID-19 there were around 210 weekly flights from Bangkok (Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi airports combined) to Singapore.

That means around 22% of previous capacity is being restored under the quarantine-free VTL scheme by early January 2022.

See our dedicated article below for a full list of VTL design