SINGAPORE — The Government will be committing S$500 million to support aviation companies and workers under the new OneAviation Resilience Package this year, as passenger traffic in 2021 remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels, Transport Minister S Iswaran said on Wednesday (March 9). 

And as part of plans to restore Changi Airport's passenger volumes to at least 50 per cent of pre-Covid levels this year, Singapore will move beyond Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs) to allow quarantine-free entry to all vaccinated travellers from countries and regions under Ministry of Health’s “Low Risk” and “General Travel” categories when the time is right, he added. 

Speaking at the budget debate for the Ministry of Transport (MOT) on Wednesday, Mr Iswaran said that the reopening of borders and aviation recovery “is our immediate priority”.  

“Many companies choose to be in Singapore because they can easily reach their customers and suppliers in our region and beyond," he noted. "To lose Changi’s connectivity, is to lose this key competitive advantage, and our livelihoods that depend on it." 

Passenger traffic at Singapore Changi Airport still remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels, despite an improvement from 3 per cent at the beginning of 2021 to about 15 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by the end of last year, with the launch of the travel lanes. 

ONEAVIATION RESILIENCE PACKAGE

The OneAviation Resilience Package will provide support for three areas — manpower, cost relief and support for public health safeguards, and industry and workforce transformation.

S$60 million will be invested to provide aviation companies manpower support as they build up capacity ahead of demand, following a sharp fall in manpower for aviation companies such as Changi Airport Group, Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Singapore Airport Terminal Services (Sats). 

This will include wage support via an extension of the Aviation Workforce Retention Grant for six months, covering 10 per cent of wages paid to local employees from April to September 2022 and up to a cap of S$4,600 of gross monthly wages per employee. 

As of September 2021, the air transport sector employed about 25,000 workers, which was nearly one-third less than pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest published employment data by the Ministry of Manpower. 

S$390 million will also go into cost relief and support for public health safeguards. This includes extending rebates on fees and charges payable by aviation stakeholders at Changi Airport and Seletar Airport for six months in the first instance.

The Government will also continue defraying the cost of implementing public health and safe management measures at the airport. 

Another S$50 million will be set aside to provide support for companies’ innovation and productivity, and workforce transformation initiatives through the Aviation Development Fund.

Examples include the deployment of autonomous and digital technologies to optimise airport operations and enhance manpower productivity, as well as job redesign initiatives to upskill and provide quality jobs in the aviation sector.

REOPENING OF BORDERS 

“We now have the confidence and opportunity to move decisively," Mr Iswaran said. 

He referenced the International Air Transport Association's forecasts that international passenger volumes in Asia Pacific will recover to about 40 per cent of pre-pandemic levels this year. 

The Government will aim to allow all fully vaccinated travellers from countries and regions under MOH’s “Low Risk” and “General Travel” categories to enter Singapore without having to serve Stay-Home Notice, which will "effectively reopen our borders to the rest of the world", Mr Iswaran said.

MOT will work closely with the Ministry of Health and the national Covid-19 task force on the timing of this transition, "which will depend on the public health situation in Singapore and the world, among other things", he added.

TERMINAL 5 

Mr Iswaran said that the Government has used the two-year pause in the development of Changi Airport Terminal 5, announced in 2020, to review its design “in light of the pandemic experience and the heightened sustainability ambition”.

“We are firm in our resolve that Changi must have the capacity and capability to seize opportunities from aviation growth, especially in Asia, and we will provide an update on the review in due course,” he said.