Just two days before Christmas, the Singapore government banned short-term visitors and transit passengers who had recently been to the United Kingdom. The decision, made at 11:59 am (Singapore standard time) on Wednesday, December 23, left thousands of travelers stranded abroad, with limited options back home. Singapore Airlines is now reporting that it has received government approval to transport passengers from London Heathrow to Sydney and Auckland through its Singapore Changi hub.
Government approval received
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Singapore has lifted the ban on travelers traveling through Changi Airport from the UK. This happened just over a week after the government decided to block anyone in the UK due to a new strain of coronavirus detected in the country.
Today, however, a Singapore Airlines spokesman confirmed that government approval for passenger transport has been obtained. The company can now transport passengers from London Heathrow Airport onwards to Sydney and Auckland via Singapore Changi Airport – with special restrictions in place.
Passengers must remain on board
The approval to operate services like London-Singapore-Sydney will come with special limitations, however. In fact, passengers connecting to Australia will have to remain on the aircraft while on the ground in Singapore. According to Kiwi’s Stuff publication, this rule also applies to transit through Auckland.
Although prospective flight data is currently limited, we can see this applies to a recent flight with Singapore Airlines Airbus A350-900 registered 9V-SMU on December 31 with FlightRadar24.com.
- The aircraft left London at 10:20 am for Singapore as SQ317 and landed in Singapore at 6:26 am local time (January 1).
- After this 12-hour flight, passengers would have remained on board the aircraft when it became SQ281 with service to Auckland.
- The flight then took off about two and a half hours later, at 8:54 am, and landed in Auckland at 11:04 pm, local time, for a second flight stage of about 10 hours.
“The health and safety of our staff and customers remains our highest priority, and [Singapore Airlines] will continue to employ stringent health and safety measures on the ground and in the air to ensure the well-being of our passengers and crew, ” – Singapore Airlines spokesman via Sydney Morning Herald
In addition, according to FlightRadar24.com, these operations appear to be already active. An A350, registered 9V-SMM, has been flying to Singapore from London since December 27.
This policy of staying on the aircraft would mean that passengers would remain on board for about 24 hours, which is a very confined trip to a seat in economy class, with a mask at all times, no doubt. Unfortunately, due to the unpredictable and unprecedented times in which we live, passengers probably have no choice but to endure this extremely long journey to get home.
What do you think of this resumption of flight with the condition that passengers in transit remain on the aircraft? Let us know your opinion in the comments.