Singapore to Germany ticket demand surges as Vaccinated Travel Lane opens

SINGAPORE/GERMANY. ForwardKeys has highlighted strong pent-up demand for air travel in the Asia Pacific region in encouraging new flight data on the newly-launched Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) between Singapore and Germany.

The travel data analytics firm revealed air tickets originating from Singapore to Germany issued for any future travel between the announcement of the VTL on 19 August and 3 September reached 93% of 2019 levels. In the other direction, however, the number is at just 18% of pre-pandemic levels.

The data shows that demand for travel from Singapore to Germany was +135% higher than from Germany to Singapore.

The graph shows the recent surge in demand for travel between Singapore and Germany (click to enlarge)

ForwardKeys said this is reflective of the “travel-starved” residents in Singapore who have been kept at home by the pandemic since March last year. The VTL’s significance, it noted, lies in the fact that Germany is the first quarantine-free, long-haul destination for the fully-vaccinated from Singapore. 

ForwardKeys Vice President Strategic Clients & Partnerships APAC Jameson Wong said: “We had observed similar lopsided demand when the Australia-New Zealand ATB launched in April earlier this year, with almost three times as much travel going to New Zealand than the opposite direction.”

He added: “However, while that initial rush was primarily due to returning New Zealanders residing in Australia, the Singapore to Germany air bookings reflect a considerable amount of pent-up demand from the leisure segment.”

The prominence of leisure travel and low demand for business trip flights are highlighted in this chart (click to enlarge)

Wong added that for both directions, around 70% are return tickets, indicating a sizeable pie of short-term visitors.

Further analysis using data from ForwardKeys’ Destination Gateway confirmed that the biggest proportion of travellers from Singapore to Germany are leisure travellers (76%). That figure is up from 43% in 2019 and highlights the slow recovery of the business travel segment, as well as the high demand for leisure travel. 

“From quarantine-free fine prints, traveller confidence, timing, clarity of information, the attractiveness of the destination to the ease of making travel arrangements, the stars seem to be well aligned for the long-haul, outbound leisure travel to truly restart,” said Wong.   

A view through to the end of the year focusing on the different traveller segments for flight tickets booked from Singapore to Germany (click to enlarge)

The share of tickets issued directly with airlines has grown fourfold to 88% versus the 22% of 2019. Wong observed that this “reveals the control and assurance that travellers need, as they re-embrace travel and juggle the ongoing, moving pieces”. 

ForwardKeys also revealed that the average length of stay for leisure travellers from Singapore to Germany has grown from 13 days in 2019 to 15 days. 

Jameson Wong highlights pent-up demand for leisure travel in assessing the impact of the opening up of the Singapore-Germany route 

ForwardKeys Insights Specialist Ema Mandal said: “We thought the metric would have lengthened significantly given the prolonged halt on long-haul.

“But it seems the travellers from Singapore to Germany are ‘warming up’, playing it safe and have not yet started to take advantage of the fact that one can take domestic flights within Germany without affecting the return VTL eligibility, which could have driven up the length of stay.”

In its final insight on the Singapore-Germany VTL, ForwardKeys said a closer look at seasonality reveals some similarities in travel patterns across the main traveller segments.

Arrivals started to increase from 8 September when the VTL kicked off, but quickly dwindle off in early November, the travel data analyst observed. They subsequently pick up again when the school holidays commence from 20 November, peaking into December, just in time for the Christmas market season in Germany.

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