Singapore, Hong Kong to review COVID-19 situation in early July before deciding on Air Travel Bubble launch date

A decision on the new launch date for the Singapore-Hong Kong Air Travel Bubble (ATB) will be made after a review of the COVID-19 situation in both countries is done in early July. 

The announcement was made by Singapore’s Ministry of Transport (MOT) on Thursday (Jun 10). 

MOT said that both Singapore and Hong Kong remain “strongly committed” to launching the ATB safely.

“We will continue to monitor the public health situation in both places closely. Both Minister Iswaran and Secretary Yau (Hong Kong Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Mr Edward Yau) have maintained close contact and agreed that both sides would review the situation in early July, before making a decision on the target launch dates of the ATB flights,” MOT said. 

It added that an update will be provided in due time. 

The Singapore-Hong Kong ATB has been postponed three times. It was initially due to take flight on Nov 11, 2020, but a spike in COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong saw the launch date pushed back by two weeks. 

It was however postponed to two weeks after Nov 22, due to a spike in COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong. A decision was then made to further delay the launch in December 2020. 

In April, both countries agreed to set a new date of May 26 for the launch of the ATB. But a spike in community cases in Singapore and the subsequent move to Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) in a bid to control the outbreak saw the ATB postponed a second time. 

The ATB announcement on Thursday comes as Singapore prepares to relax its COVID-19 measures and move into Phase 3 (Heightened Alert).