KUALA LUMPUR: Twenty months after it halted all its international flights due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Malindo Air will take to the international skies again next week, with its inaugural flight from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.
Daily flights between Kuala Lumpur and the island republic will commence on Nov 29 with the inaugural vaccinated travel lane (VTL) flight OD803 departing from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore at 9.25am.
The airline, in a statement today, said that flight OD084 from Singapore on the same day would depart for Kuala Lumpur at 11.30am.
"VTL flights," said Malindo Air, "are now available for booking, and the flights will be operated by pilots and cabin crew who have all been fully vaccinated."
"There is a positive sentiment towards the rebound in travel," Malindo Air's chief operating officer Captain Mushafiz Mustafa Bakri noted.
"Malindo Air," he added, "strongly supports all efforts to open the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in a safe manner.
"When we look at passengers carried and advance bookings, they are more encouraging than they were in recent months.
"With the surge in the domestic leisure demand, we should see business travel pick up soon. There is obviously a desire for travel."
Conceding that "we still have a long way to go," Mushafiz said that there is a lot of reason to be optimistic.
"We are hoping for this booking momentum to build through to the end of the year and spill over into the first quarter of 2022.
"This move," he said, "will certainly help to establish confidence in the safe resumption of international air travel."
The airline also stated that Malindo Air customers between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore can distinguish during their booking that their flight is either a designated VTL flight or a normal scheduled flight.
"Customers must meet the VTL requirements. Eligible travellers will be persons of all nationalities in Malaysia or Singapore who would like to travel between the two countries for all purposes of travel.
"They must have completed a full regimen of a Covid-19 vaccine which means the required number of dose(s) to provide the full vaccine protection, recognised by the competent authority of the country they wish to seek entry to," it added.
Children aged 12 years and below would qualify for travel under the VTL without the need to show proof of vaccination, Malindo Air said.
"However, the child must be accompanied by a VTL traveller who meets all the VTL requirements."
Travellers under the VTL scheme may enter Singapore and Malaysia without quarantine and only need to undergo Covid-19 testing.
Additionally, they must purchase travel insurance, with a minimum coverage of S$30,000 for Covid-19-related medical treatment and hospitalisation costs, before their trip to Singapore, and a coverage of RM100,000 for those travellers into Malaysia.
