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A closed departure lounge in the Hong Kong International Airport terminal.
Miguel Candela | SOPA Images | LightRocket via Getty Images
SINGAPORE – Singapore and Hong Kong have again delayed the start of their bilateral “travel bubble”, postponing the plan beyond 2020, authorities in both cities said on Tuesday.
The latest postponement followed an earlier decision to delay the launch of the air travel bubble by two weeks, after Hong Kong reported a resurgence of new Covid-19 cases. The inaugural flights under the deal, which initially allowed travelers to skip the quarantine, were supposed to begin on November 22.
“Singapore and Hong Kong have further reviewed the COVID-19 situation in Hong Kong, and as unrelated local cases remain high, both sides have decided to postpone the start of the Singapore-Hong Kong air travel bubble ( ATB) for beyond December 2020, “the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said in a statement.
Both the Singapore aviation authority and the Hong Kong government said they will review the deal again in late December to decide on a new start date.
Since the first postponement of the travel bubble, new Covid-19 infections in Hong Kong have continued to rise. The city reported an additional 76 cases Monday, bringing its cumulative infections since the outbreak to 6,315, official data showed.
Singapore, meanwhile, appears to have kept its domestic outbreak under control, reporting mostly imported cases in recent weeks. Accumulated cases in the city reached 58,218 on Monday, data from its health ministry showed.
The Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble was first announced in October as the two major Asian business centers sought to repair some of the economic damage that the coronavirus pandemic inflicted on their tourism and aviation industries.
Both cities do not have domestic markets for air travel and their tourism and aviation industries are highly dependent on international travel. Last year, Hong Kong recorded more than 453,000 visitor arrivals from Singapore, while Singapore received 489,000 visitors from Hong Kong, according to official statistics from both sides.
The bilateral travel bubble won’t bring as many visitors, but Singapore’s Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung hailed the deal as “the first of its kind” that could help restore international travel.
– CNBC’s Karen Gilchrist contributed to this report.
