GEORGE TOWN (March 16): Penang International Airport (PIA) today welcomed its first passengers travelling under the new Singapore-Penang Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) by Air programme.
Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) managing director Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood lauded the VTL by Air programme by the government to stimulate international traffic and tourism leading to economic growth.
“The programme (VTL) to include Penang will contribute to the revitalisation of our tourism industry as Penang is also a gateway to the northern states, so this can benefit Kedah, Perak and Perlis as well.
“As a start, we are expecting between 1,000 and 2,000 VTL passenger movements during the first week of operations,” he said in a statement here on Wednesday (March 16).
Iskandar also said the VTL programme is good for encouraging international travel within safe parameters.
“While our borders will reopen on April 1, 2022, this programme will be beneficial for travel between Malaysia and countries that have not fully opened their borders.
“Similar to KLIA, PIA now has a private health screening service operator at the airport to provide Covid-19 screening tests and we have also obtained approval from the authorities to implement the ‘Test and Release’ arrival process for all VTL by Air programmes,” he said. view more
