Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble gets go ahead

Hong Kong will only let fully vaccinated residents travel

Hong Kong (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The long-awaited Hong Kong-Singapore bubble has finally been given the green light to restart next month – although with strict conditions for travel.

The official Air Travel Bubble (ATB) will kick off on 26 May on “designated flights” between the two Asian cities.

The bubble has been introduced amid a stabilising of Covid infections in both locations.

However, unlike the Australia-New Zealand bubble that launched last week, there are many conditions before travellers can move between the two cities.

Firstly, Hong Kong citizens must be fully vaccinated with two doses to travel, as well as test negative for Covid both before departure and on arrival in order to escape the quarantine requirement.

Travellers must have also spent the past 14 days in their respective territory, and Singapore-bound travellers must download the country’s official contact tracing app to use while there.

The air corridor will be suspended for a fortnight if the number of infections in either Hong Kong or Singapore rises above a seven-day moving average of five.

The news comes a week after the Trans-Tasman bubble linked Australia and New Zealand, with residents able to travel freely between the two nations with no need to quarantine or test.

The air corridor between Hong Kong and Singapore was first mooted in November last year, but collapsed before beginning after a rise of cases in Hong Kong.

A statement from the Hong Kong government said the bubble would resume “cross-border air travel in a gradual and orderly manner amidst stabilised epidemic situations of the two places”.

“Both sides will need to stay very vigilant in the next one month, so that we can launch the first flights smoothly,” said the Minister for Transport of the Republic of Singapore, Mr Ong Ye Kung. “It is a significant ATB between two aviation and financial services hubs in Asia.”

Dr YK Pang, chairman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, said: “Relaunching the Air Travel Bubble with Singapore is the first step in Hong Kong’s resumption of international travel, and a milestone for preparing the city for gradually welcoming more visitors back.

“We expect that travellers at the early stage of the launch of the ATB are those who travel for family visits or other essential reasons, and leisure travellers will return successively.”