Hong Kong-Singapore's air travel bubble postponed due to COVID-19 surge

The air travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore, which was originally slated to begin this week, has been postponed amid an increase in coronavirus cases in Hong Kong.

"Given the evolving situation in Hong Kong, Secretary Edward Yau and I discussed further this afternoon and decided that it would be better to defer the launch of the ATB, by two weeks. We will review within two weeks on the new launch date and update again," CNN quoted Singapore Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung as saying on November 21.

The bubble arrangement, which was to begin with one flight a day into each city with 200 passengers per flight, would have allowed quarantine-free air travel between the two countries.

Under the initial agreement, the travel bubble was to be suspended if the number of untraceable local infections in either Singapore or Hong Kong exceeded five on a seven-day moving average, Al Jazeera reported.

However, with Hong Kong entering the fourth wave of coronavirus, Singapore's Civil Aviation Authority opted to postpone the plan to begin the bubble arrangement.

( With inputs from ANI )