Queues for hours at Singapore Air as travel routes open up

Dozens of people queued outside Singapore Airlines’ customer-service center on the fourth floor of a luxury shopping mall on Orchard Road in downtown Singapore, in some cases waiting for many hours to speak to staff about flights now opening up from the city-state. 

A sign outside the center indicated that customers should be prepared to wait for three hours or more due to high demand. A security guard stood at the front of the line to shepherd people inside, where they would spend up to 30 minutes speaking with airline representatives.

It’s been like this since Saturday, when Singapore announced it would allow quarantine-free visits for arrivals from several countries including the U.S. and U.K. on so-called vaccinated travel lanes.