Singapore Transit: Handling Pre-Bought Tobacco and Alcohol

by Kim Tran
(Australia)

I'm travelling to Vietnam but transiting for 2 hours at Changi Airport. If I buy tobacco and alcohol from Melbourne Airport as hand carry, can I bring these items with us and transit to the next flight or do I have to declare at Customs before transit?

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Singapore Transit: Handling Pre-Bought Tobacco and Alcohol

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Nov 08, 2009

Tobacco and Alcohol During Singapore Transit
by: Gabriel Tan

Hi Kim

Tobacco

If you are on a transit stopover at Singapore Airport, the boarding pass for your onward flight to Vietnam would have been issued to you at Melbourne.

Hence, you are not required to clear immigration/customs checks, and by extension may proceed to board your onward flight without declaring your tobacco at customs.

Alcohol

At Singapore Airport, departing passengers may buy a specified amount of alcohol drinks from the duty-free shops in the transit mall. These bottles of alcohol are packed in specially sealed see-through plastic bags.

I believe - but am not absolutely sure - that there's an agreement among airports to allow such specially sealed alcoholic drinks through, during transit flights.

It's best you verify this with the authorities at Melbourne Airport.

Any alcohol not packed in these specially sealed plastic bags will not make it onto the plane.

Jul 15, 2010

Not happy. Jan.
by: not Jan....

My experience is that the possibly overzealous people at the airport take your alcohol, even if in a sealed duty free bag.

When coming from Heathrow to Sydney, the nice people took the duty free alcohol that was purchased at Heathrow.

I am singularly not impressed, and will try to avoid Singapore in the future, Especially as a transit but also as an end destination.