Singapore Airlines (SIA) will launch a seasonal Singapore (SIN)-Vancouver (YVR)-Seattle (SEA) route in December as the airline ramps up long-haul flying with COVID-19 border restrictions easing.

The news of the three-city route, which will operate 4X-weekly from Dec. 2 to Feb. 15, came after the Singapore government set up vaccinated travel lanes (VTL) between SIN and a slew of countries, including Canada and the US. It also comes as the US prepares to welcome vaccinated passengers from a number of regions back to the country in November.

SIA said two of the four SIN-YVR-SEA weekly frequencies will be VTL services. The route will be operated with a 253-seat Airbus A350-900 featuring 42 business-class seats, 24 premium-economy seats and 187 economy seats.

SIA is also designating its daily SIN-San Francisco (SFO) service to a VTL route from Oct. 20. VTL service will also operate between SIN and both Los Angeles (LAX) and New York Kennedy (JFK).

For a passenger to travel aboard a VTL flight to Singapore, he or she must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination prior to departure. These passengers will not have to quarantine. The number of COVID-19 PCR tests required for entering Singapore will also be reduced from four to two, canceling the need for Day 3 and Day 7 tests during a VTL passenger's stay in the island nation.

“With the new Singapore-Vancouver-Seattle flights and the conversion of San Francisco-Singapore to a VTL service, SIA customers can enjoy even more seamless travel options to North America during the year-end holiday season,” SIA senior VP-marketing JoAnn Tan Senior said. “Singapore Airlines will continue to monitor the demand for air travel and adjust its services accordingly.”

The addition of YYZ, SEA and SFO grow SIA Group’s VTL network to 17 cities.

SIA will operate VTL services to SIN from Amsterdam (AMS), Barcelona (BCN), Copenhagen (CPH), London Heathrow (LHR), LAX, Milan (MXP), JFK, Paris (CDG) and Rome (FCO) from Oct. 19. Seoul (ICN) will be added from Nov. 16. Existing SIA VTL routes are flown from Brunei (BWN), Frankfurt (FRA) and Munich (MUN).

SIA Group carrier Scoot will begin VTL flights from Berlin (BER) from Oct. 20.

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