Changi Airport reopens arrival halls to family and friends of passengers

SINGAPORE: Family and friends of passengers arriving at Changi Airport from low-risk countries and regions can enter the arrival halls to greet them from Friday (Oct 15).

Before this, they were only allowed to receive travellers from the terminal's arrival pick-up kerbside, due to tighter COVID-19 measures put in place when terminals 1 and 3 reopened to the public in September. Access to the arrival halls had been limited to professional meet-and-greet services such as hotel representatives and company agents.

With the easing of restrictions, one representative is allowed to pick up each arriving passenger group, said Changi Airport on its website.

"You will need to present the arriving passengers’ flight itinerary or a copy of your company’s authorisation letter/email to enter the meeting zone, after the flight has landed," it added.

Low-risk countries and regions are those classified under categories I and II.

Hong Kong, Macao, mainland China and Taiwan fall under category I. Travellers from these regions only need to remain in self-isolation until they obtain a negative COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction test result.

Category II includes Australia, Brunei, Japan, South Korea, the United States and several European countries. Travellers from these countries who are not on the vaccinated travel lane are required to serve a seven-day stay-home notice.

The move to ease restrictions at the arrival halls comes as Singapore prepares to receive more travellers under the vaccinated travel lanes (VTL).

"With the Singapore government opening up more VTLs and moving more countries into categories I and II, we anticipate that the airport will start to receive more arrival passengers," said Changi Airport Group in response to CNA's queries.

"Allowing family and friends to pick-up travellers from low-risk countries/regions at the arrival hall gives them an additional option, as they can still choose to pick-up the traveller from arrival pick-up kerbside."

There are 11 countries under Singapore's vaccinated travel lane scheme.

They were first launched with Germany and Brunei on Sep 8.

From Oct 19, it will be extended to eight countries - Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. More than 2,400 people have been issued travel passes to enter Singapore from these eight countries, for travel between Oct 19 and Nov 17.

The vaccinated travel lane with South Korea starts from Nov 15.