The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) announced today (November 21) that in view of the recent epidemic situation in Hong Kong, the Governments of HKSAR and Singapore have decided to defer the inaugural flights under the Hong Kong-Singapore Air Travel Bubble (ATB) for two weeks.
A Government spokesman said that the epidemic situation in Hong Kong has deteriorated rapidly. The increasing trend of the number of unlinked local cases shows that there is an invisible and continuous transmission chain in the community. It is expected that the epidemic situation in Hong Kong will still remain severe in the near future. If the ATB is to be launched as scheduled tomorrow, chances of making immediate adjustment are high. The deferral of the inaugural flights is a suitable and responsible arrangement to minimise the inconvenience caused to the ATB travellers and reduce the uncertainty in their itineraries.
The Governments of HKSAR and Singapore will continue to closely monitor the epidemic situation of both places, exchange relevant data and statistics, and maintain close communication. The new date of inaugural flights will be announced in early December. Travellers who wish to travel between the two places via the ATB arrangement should watch out for the latest announcement and adjust their itineraries according to their own situation.
To cater for possible fluctuation in the epidemic situation, the ATB has a built-in mechanism whereby the number of designated flights may be increased, decreased or even suspended depending on the situation. If the latest seven-day moving average of the daily number of unlinked local cases is more than five for either Singapore or Hong Kong, the ATB arrangement will be suspended after two days (including the day on which the exceedance of the threshold is announced) for a two-week period. If the seven-day moving average of the daily number of unlinked local cases reported on the last day of the suspension period does not exceed five for both Singapore and Hong Kong, the ATB arrangement can resume on the next day.
For details of the ATB, please refer to the designated website: www.tourism.gov.hk/travelbubble.
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