First fully vaccinated SIA flight crew takes off for Jakarta

Singapore — The first Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight with a fully vaccinated crew left Singapore on Thursday (Feb 11).

The pilots and cabin crew of Flight SQ956 took off for Jakarta at 9.30am. It was the first of three departing SIA Group flights with crew who have received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the Straits Times reported online.

Scoot’s Flight TR606 to Bangkok also left Changi at 9.30am on Thursday with a set of 11 vaccinated crew members, SilkAir’s first vaccinated flight MI608 was scheduled to leave for Phnom Penh later at 4.30pm with a crew of eight.

Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung spoke to the crew of the Jakarta-bound SIA Flight SQ956 on Thursday morning. He said the vaccination drive has been “proceeding like clockwork”.

He noted that once all the border staff who come into contact with the outside world are vaccinated, “we would have really taken a very big step in securing our border and keeping Singaporeans safe”.

More than 52,000 personnel in the transport sector have received their first dose of the vaccine till Wednesday (Feb 10).

The Ministry of Transport said more than 39,000 workers in the aviation and maritime sectors have got their first jab – over 90 per cent of the 43,000 front-liners in both sectors.

On Wednesday (Feb 10), an SIA cabin crew member on a turnaround flight was among the 11 new imported COVID-19 cases reported.

The 41-year-old Singaporean woman also tested preliminarily positive for the B117 strain, and is pending further confirmatory tests, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

The cabin crew member had left Singapore on Jan 30 on a turnaround flight to the UAE. She did not disembark from the aircraft and returned on Feb 1. /TISG