Hong Kong, Singapore resume talks on travel bubble plans

The travel bubble set in May was postponed after the virus resurgence in Singapore.

The Hong Kong government is in discussions with Singapore on reviving plans on the air travel bubble (ATB) arrangement between the two areas, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said.

The first flight under the ATB arrangement was scheduled to take off on 26 May, but was postponed after a rise in COVID-19 cases in Singapore.

“Now that Singapore’s [COVID-19] situation has stabilised, we certainly will revive the earlier scheme that we have devised,” Lam said.  

“I understand that Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau has been discussing with his Singaporean counterpart recently on when and how we could commence the ATB arrangement with Singapore.”

Read also: Rising COVID cases burst HK-SG travel bubble

Chief Executive Lam added the Hong Kong government will be studying whether the new anti-epidemic strategy Singapore will implement and the vaccination programmes in both places could affect the travel bubble.

“Now that Singapore also has a very high vaccination rate, so another factor that we need to consider, on top of what we have agreed on previously, is whether both sides should require vaccination as a condition for participating in the ATB,” she also said.

“The two governments are very friendly and the situation is very stable on both sides. So this is something that we will be working very closely on.”