Singapore hasn't given up on air travel bubble with Hong Kong, says minister

SINGAPORE — Singapore has not given up on forming a bilateral “air travel bubble” with Hong Kong that would allow travelers to skip quarantine, the Southeast Asian country’s Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung told CNBC.

The arrangement was supposed to begin last November but was postponed after Hong Kong reported a resurgence in new Covid-19 cases. A new launch date has not been set, but Ong said authorities from both sides have been in touch.

“As you know, the agreement has been signed, concluded. We’re making a few tweaks, a few proposals to tighten it,” the minister told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Thursday.

“But I think the key consideration now is this is shortly after Chinese New Year and both sides are being cautious. We want to watch if there’s any impact due to Chinese New Year on community transmission,” he added.

The Lunar New Year festivities took place last month. Celebrations typically involve gatherings and visiting the homes of family and friends — events that were scaled down in many countries this year due to the pandemic.

Ong said there appears to be no sign of increased Covid transmission following the festivities.

In Singapore, new daily cases have remained low, with no community infections on most days, he said. As of Wednesday, the country has reported more than 60,000 confirmed cases and 29 deaths since the outbreak began, health ministry data showed.

Over in Hong Kong, the number of daily new cases has also come down from a recent peak in January. As of Wednesday, the city has reported more than 11,000 confirmed and probable Covid cases and 203 deaths, official data showed.

Both Singapore and Hong Kong are major Asian business hubs that don’t have domestic air travel markets. Their tourism and aviation industries, heavily reliant on international travel, have been badly hit by the pandemic.   

In addition to Hong Kong, Singapore is keen to establish “travel bubble” arrangements with other places, said Ong, who’s predicting “some recovery” in aviation this year.

“What is in our favor is vaccination. What is not in our favor is mutations and variants that are more transmissible and may not respond to the vaccination. So you got this opposing forces, and I think that is the nature of this battle, it keeps throwing you curveballs,” said the minister.

“But notwithstanding that, I think vaccination is a big gamechanger and some time this year we hope to see some recovery. And when we look at recovery, I think air travel bubble is a major plank for us to work on,” he added.

Vaccination rates will not be the only consideration for Singapore in opening its borders, said Ong. He added that the track record of countries and territories, when it comes to pandemic control, is a more important factor.

The minister pointed out that even before vaccinations were underway, Singapore was able to open up to some places that were considered “safe.”

Over the past year, Singapore has allowed visitors from several places — including Australia, New Zealand, mainland China and Taiwan — to skip quarantine if they meet certain requirements, such as a negative Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test upon arrival.

Ong said around 1,000 such travelers enter Singapore each day without having to quarantine, and have not led to higher Covid transmission rates in the country so far.

“We still need to take a country by country, bilateral approach,” he said.

“As a place, as a territory or as a country, their infection control track record continues to be the key outcome that we need to look at. And if they’re successful, we should continue to open up to them and form air travel bubbles with them.”