Singapore and Hong Kong will review the long-await air travel bubble in late August 2021, signaling that the travel bridge between Asia’s two business and financial hubs may finally see the daylight.
The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the Hong Kong government, “have jointly agreed to resume discussions on the Singapore-Hong Kong Air Travel Bubble Only when the COVID-19 situation allows”, the Singapore Ministry of Transport (MOT) announced on July 20, 2021. This means the review date for the long-awaited travel corridor was moved to late August due to the worsening COVID-19 situation in Singapore.
Earlier in May 2021, the launch of the Hong Kong-Singapore air travel bridge, originally planned for May 26, 2021, was deferred by mutual agreement between the two cities due to the worsening COVID-19 situation in Singapore. This was the second attempt to launch the bubble, after the initial attempt on November 22, 2020, which did not come to fruition.
Such delays of the quarantine-free travel between Singapore and Hong Kong might be shattering hopes to boost travel and ticket sales for their respective flag carriers, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines (SIA1) (SINGY), which are already suffering from low passenger traffic numbers in international air travel due to the ongoing crisis.