Singapore Airlines Ltd’s budget carrier Scoot has stopped accepting bookings to Hong Kong until March 7, signaling that it is the latest airline to be banned from flying to the territory for two weeks.
The move severs one of the last air links between the Asian financial hubs, with a service today by Cathay Pacific Ltd’s (國泰航空) HK Express (香港快運航空) unit the sole flight from Singapore to Hong Kong remaining this month. The route was one of the busiest in the world before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Bookings for flights from Singapore to Hong Kong were unavailable until March 7, Scoot’s Web site showed. Scoot was operating a daily service.
Photo: Reuters
The ban comes after Hong Kong authorities blocked Singapore Airlines from flying to the territory for two weeks from Wednesday after too many passengers tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival.
Hong Kong has become increasingly cut off from the world as it tries to gain control of its worst COVID-19 outbreak since the pandemic started.
Representatives for Scoot and the Hong Kong government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Cathay operated one flight to and from Singapore this month and has just one next month, on March 19, its Web site showed.
That is in stark contrast to the 252 monthly flights scheduled pre-pandemic, according to previously published timetables.
Air travel in and out of Hong Kong continues to be challenging. Hong Kong has banned flights from nine countries, including the UK and US, as well as transit travel from everywhere except Taiwan and mainland China.
Most people who manage to get into the territory face two weeks mandatory hotel quarantine.
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