Air travel in Asia won’t return to pre-Covid levels ‘anytime soon,’

Singapore’s Finance Minister Lawrence Wong says “open and free” air travel in Asia remains unlikely; in the near term as parts of the region battle with an increase in Covid-19 infections.

Also, He says that he is somewhat less sanguine about the prospects of air travel.

“The region is still facing rolling waves of infection, and vaccination rates for many countries in the region are still not high enough. So I don’t think we will be able to see open and free travel in the region, in particular, any time soon,”

Singapore is a Southeast Asia city-state with no domestic air travel market. International travel came to a sudden halt in the past year due to the pandemic; and that’s hurt Singapore’s aviation and tourism sectors — two major contributors to economic growth.

However, wrong says the Singapore government continues to talk with its counterparts; in the region about setting up “safe travel lanes.” He didn’t name the places Singapore is in talks.

He says by adding that we may have some travel arrangements with countries facing low and stable infection rates.Also, there may be some benefits in terms of shorter quarantine times

Singapore has an air travel bubble agreement with Hong Kong that will allow travelers to skip quarantine. But the launch of the scheme has been postponed twice ; first from November and then again in May — due to renewed Covid outbreaks in either cities.

Singapore appears on track to meet that goal. Around 2.7 million people — or 47% of the country’s population — have received at least the first dose of Covid vaccine as of Monday, according to the latest health ministry data.