Singapore, Hong Kong travel bubble expected to launch in November

THE planned air travel bubble between Singapore and Hong Kong may start next month, the Republic's Minister for Transport Ong Ye Kung said in response to queries from The Business Times (BT).

SCMP on Tuesday reported Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam as saying that the bubble is expected to launch in November.

Mr Ong told BT on Wednesday that discussions on the arrangement "have indeed been going well, and we share the assessment of (Ms Lam)".

The ministry hopes to be able to share the launch date and other implementation details soon, Mr Ong added.

Singapore and Hong Kong announced two weeks ago that they had reached an in-principle agreement to set up a bilateral air travel bubble, to revive air travel between the aviation hubs in a safe manner.

This will enable travel without quarantine, stay-home-notice requirements or a controlled itinerary.

While there will be no restrictions on the purpose of the trip, travellers are required to have been in either Hong Kong or Singapore for a 14-day period before they make the journey.

They will also need to take mutually recognised Covid-19 swab tests and produce a negative result.

In addition, there will be a quota on the number of people that can travel between Singapore and Hong Kong under the bubble, but the quota may be increased as operations stabilise.