Singapore and Malaysia agree to resume land and air travel for fully vaccinated travellers

Singapore and Malaysia have reached an agreement towards resuming full land and air travel for vaccinated people, announced Minister of Health Ong Ye Kung through his Facebook post on Mar 23.

Mr Ong was invited by Mr Khairy Jamaluddin, Malaysia’s health minister to Kuala Lumpur to have a “frank discussion”.

The two ministers have reflected that the COVID-19 situation for both countries has stabilised and improved. 

“We agreed the situation has stabilised and we can work immediately towards the full resumption of air and land travel for fully vaccinated people,” tweeted Mr Khairy.

Malaysia will be reopening its border to international travellers on Apr 1. Travellers will not need to undergo quarantine as the country begins to transition to a COVID-19 endemic phase.

Currently, under the land VTL, travellers are only able to commute from Singapore to Malaysia by taking designated bus services.

As for air VTL, there are designated flights between Changi Airport and Kuala Lumpur International Airport as well as to Penang.

The Minister of Trade and Industry responded to CNA’s query that they are working with Malaysian Counterparts to expand the land VTL by looking into other modes of transportation such as via cars and motorcycles.

Mr Ong hopes that this reopening will help to “rebuild people-to-people connections that were disrupted due to COVID-19”.