Hong Kong and Singapore establish travel bubble

No quarantine will be required and travellers will be allowed to make business or tourism trips without restrictions.  

Asia.- Hong Kong and Singapore announced on Thursday that they have reached an agreement to create a travel bubble allowing residents to move freely between the two cities on dedicated planes with only a negative Covid-19 test result. 

The arrangement is expected to be implemented within weeks. Visitors to either city will have no limits on the type of trip they will be allowed to make, be it for tourism or business reasons.  

No quarantine period will be required on arrival. Transit passengers will not be allowed to board the travel bubble flights. 

The Hong Kong government said in a statement: “This milestone arrangement will help revive cross-border air travel between the two aviation hubs, in a safe and progressive way.”

Singapore transport minister Ong Ye Kung said he hoped the travel bubble could be “a model and a template for us to forge more such relationships and partnerships”.  

Industry groups welcomed the announcement and said they hoped similar bubbles would be formed.  

Jason Wong, of Hong Kong’s Travel Industry Council, said he “would most love to have similar schemes with destinations like Japan, Thailand and South Korea.”

“Hopefully having the first one would help Hong Kong to convince more partners,” he added.  

Singapore began to relax restrictions for travel in August. Hong Kong is also in talks with Macau to form a travel bubble.