With the COVID-19 travel restriction not easing much, Singapore Airlines (SIA / SQ) flights departing from Singapore have now been banned from landing in Hong Kong for two weeks.
This rule comes after a transit passenger who arrived in HK on Wednesday (March 31) tested positive for Covid-19, while three other passengers on the flight were found to have breached rules of entry.
An SIA spokesman confirmed the flight ban but noted that passenger services from Hong Kong to Singapore are not affected.*
Other airlines banned by Hong Kong
Singapore Airlines was not the first airline to be hit by the ban. A number of respectable international airlines have already been hit with the two-week flight ban. Here are some of the notable cases:
- Emirates — January 9th to the 22nd.
- British Airways — December 11th to the 25th.
- KLM — December 4th to 17th.
- Air India — November 20th to December 3rd, August to November.
The Case — Transit Passanger
The infected passenger is a 28-year-old woman who arrived in Hong Kong from Indonesia.
Although she was asymptomatic, the Hong Kong government said that the positive case was detected through a sample collected at the airport. Three other passengers on the same flight – SQ882 from Singapore to Hong Kong – failed to comply with local COVID-19 regulations for inbound travellers.
Bubble No More
The flight ban comes just as talks on re-establishing air travel bubble between Singapore and Hong Kong. Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Monday that Singapore is studying a proposal from Hong Kong to allow quarantine-free flights^.
A travel bubble between the cities was supposed to be launched last November, but was halted before the first scheduled flight when Hong Kong saw a spike in COVID-19 cases.
Update: on the other news, Australia and New Zealand have established their own travel bubble:
Source*: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-airlines-sia-hong-kong-covid-19-14545178
Source^: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/hong-kong-calls-for-mandatory-vaccination-in-travel-bubble-talks-with-singapore
