Singapore Airlines (SIA1) (SINGY) has announced that it is temporarily suspending Hong Kong stopovers for its SQ7 flight (San Francisco to Singapore via Hong Kong) from January 8, 2022 to January 20, 2022 in response to new COVID-19 restrictions.
[Advisory] Temporary suspension of Hong Kong stopover for SQ7 from 8 to 20 January 2022. For details, please visit https://t.co/4naYEdSRry.
— Singapore Airlines (@SingaporeAir) January 6, 2022
“From 8 January 2022 to 20 January 2022, Singapore Airlines’ (SIA1) (SINGY) thrice-weekly SQ7 service will operate directly from San Francisco to Singapore, instead of stopping over at Hong Kong,” the airline said in a statement on all of its social media channels.
“This follows the Hong Kong government’s directive to suspend entry of travelers from the United States into Hong Kong during this time. Passengers traveling on SQ8 from Singapore to San Francisco (via Hong Kong) will not be affected.”
Singapore Airlines (SIA1) (SINGY) also said that it will be reaching out to all affected customers to offer the necessary assistance.
On January 5, 2022, the Hong Kong government announced its decision to implement “place-specific flight suspensions” from the following countries from January 8 to 21, 2022: Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Hong Kong has regularly used such flight suspensions as part of its strategy to stop COVID-19 spreading.
“All passenger flights from these eight places will be prohibited from landing in Hong Kong, and at the same time, persons who have stayed in these places for more than two hours will be restricted from boarding passenger flights for Hong Kong,” the government directive said.
With a population of 7.4 million, Hong Kong has 12,708 cases in total so far, and have recorded 38 new COVID-19 cases on January 5, 2022.
One of Hong Kong’s most popular attractions, Disneyland Hong Kong, has just announced a 2-week closure amid the growing surge of COVID-19’s new Omicron variant.