Australia and Singapore To Ease Inbound Travel Requirements

British Airways, Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways Returns A380 to Service

Sam Chui·October 17, 2021

Thanks to COVID-19, most of the world's A380 fleet were grounded. Fast forward a year and, with international travel starting to recover, more airlines are now returning the A380 back to the sky.

Singapore Airlines will be reinstating the A380 on November 2021 with flights to London, the same month British Airways will be flying the A380 from the UK to Europe. Qatar Airways, in a surprise move, will also fly their A380 again from December. Here are the details:

Singapore Airlines

From 18 November 2021, Singapore Airlines will begin flying the Airbus A380 daily between Singapore and London.

SQ322 Singapore to London departing 23:45 arriving 05:55 +1
SQ317 London to Singapore departing 10:55 arriving 07:50 +1

With the Australian border opening up in November, the A380 will also return to Sydney from 1 December with the following schedule:

SQ231 Singapore to Sydney departing 00:45 arriving 11:50
SQ222 Sydney to Singapore departing 16:10 arriving 21:20

Singapore Airlines A380 flight to/from London will operate as a "Vaccinated Travel Lane" (VTL) flight, which means all passengers must be vaccinated and fulfil the VTL requirement below:

VTL Requirement Details

Travellers to Singapore must have only been to their VTL country/region of departure and/or Singapore in the last 14 consecutive days before departure for Singapore. For full VTL information, please click here.

Vaccination Requirement

From 18th October travellers must be fully vaccinated and have a valid proof of vaccination issued in any VTL country/region or Singapore, regardless of which VTL country/region they depart from.

For acceptable proof of vaccination issued in Singapore, please refer to details in this FAQ response here.

For acceptable proof of vaccination issued in any VTL country/region, please refer to this FAQ response here.

Singapore Expands Quarantine Free Vaccinated Travel Lane to 14 Cities

Singapore A380 will feature 6 First Class Suites, 78 business class seats, 44 premium economy seats, and 343 economy seats.

British Airways

In November, British Airways will operate the A380 on short-haul routes for crew familiarization purposes. These inter-Europe A380 flights are now bookable and perhaps a great way to enjoy the A380 Jumbo Jet without breaking the bank.

Between 8th Nov and 2nd Dec 2021, British Airways will be operating following schedule:

To Frankfurt (FRA) on BA902/903 daily except Saturday, and on BA908/909 on Saturday

To Madrid (MAD) on BA462/463 daily except Saturday, and on BA456/457 on Saturday

British Airways A380 will be returning to long haul service from 3 December on the following flights:

From 3rd December, 2021, British Airways will begin flying the A380 to Dubai
From 5th December, 2021, British Airways will begin flying the A380 to Miami
From 9th December, 2021, British Airways will begin flying the A380 to Los Angeles

Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways GCEO HE Akbar Al Baker has confirmed that the airline will restart flights, operated by the Airbus A380, which were thought to never return. The airline said that due to the grounding of the13 A350s, over claims of fuselage degradation, this forced the carrier to make a decision.