All posts tagged: Air Travel Bubble

Singapore to commence quarantine-free travel lanes from Germany and Brunei from 8 September

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Singapore residents can now visit Germany and back without any form of isolation or quarantine requirements. The Singapore government yesterday (19 Aug 2021) announced that it will waive quarantine requirements for vaccinated travellers from Brunei and Germany from 8 Sep 2021, subject to several conditions, including frequent testing. The arrangement, called Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL), will allow a set number of fully vaccinated visitors or returning residents to come into Singapore from these two countries without the need for any Stay-Home Notice. While this new VTL covers both Brunei and Germany for a start, many travellers will most likely be interested in Germany as a leisure destination, after being starved of travel for more than a year. Let’s cover how the VTL will work in detail. Overview of the mechanics To be clear, the VTL mechanism is only applicable for the inbound journey to Singapore. For Singapore-based residents, the outbound journey and its requirements is dependent on the country you are visiting (more on this later). For your VTL journey to Singapore from Germany, Civil …

Singapore to restart travel bubble arrangement with Hong Kong from 26 May

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Will it be a second time lucky? The long awaited Air Travel Bubble (ATB) between Singapore and Hong Kong is finally set to take off from 26 May 2021, announced by both Singapore and Hong Kong on 26 Apr. This comes almost six months after the plans for the quarantine-free all-purpose travel arrangement was delayed just hours before its launch in November, and subsequently scuppered in December last year, due to a reflux of local cases in Hong Kong as new infections occured. What are the new requirements? By and large, the requirements remain the same as what was proposed last year, including: Travellers must have stayed in Singapore or Hong Kong wholly for the preceding 14 days before travel. This excludes select groups of foreign workers (Holders of Work Permits or S Passes working in the construction, marine shipyard and process sectors), as requested by the Hong Kong government. Travellers must take mutually recognised COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and will need to have negative test results. Travellers will not be subject to any quarantine …

Singapore-Hong Kong ATB will not proceed until 2021

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The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore officially announced yesterday (1 Dec 2020) that the Air Travel Bubble will be further delayed Singapore and Hong Kong have further reviewed the COVID-19 situation in Hong Kong, and given that local unlinked cases are still high, both parties have decided to defer the commencement of the Singapore – Hong Kong Air Travel Bubble (ATB) to beyond December 2020. The exact start date of the ATB arrangement will be reviewed in late December. Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, 1 December 2020 Second deferment The ATB was originally scheduled to launch on 22 Nov 2020. However, Hong Kong started to see a new wave of Covid-19 cases, and at the eleventh hour, authorities from both countries announced late on eve of the inaugural flights that the ATB will be postponed by two weeks, with details to be announced this week. Fast forward two weeks later, we are now looking at an early 2021 launch, given that the cases in Hong Kong remain high, with the seven-day average of unlinked cases …

Singapore-Hong Kong ATB launch deferred by two weeks

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The travel bubble bursts for now, bubble slated for re-start on 6 Dec 2020 Travellers hoping to catch the Singapore-Hong Kong air travel bubble (ATB) will now have to wait another two weeks for it to begin, as Hong Kong is facing a possible ‘fourth wave’ in Covid-19 cases. The ATB was originally slated to commence today (22 Nov), but a decision was made on Saturday afternoon to postpone it by two weeks given the unstable situation in Hong Kong. On Saturday (21 Nov 2020), Hong Kong saw a total of 13 unlinked cases, bringing the seven day average of unlinked cases to 3.86. While this did not reach the mutually agreed threshold of 5, both countries agreed that it would be unwise to commence the ATB at this point. 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 …