Singapore Airlines Ltd.’s budget carrier Scoot has stopped accepting bookings to Hong Kong until March 7, signaling it is the latest airline to be banned from flying to the city for two weeks.
The move severs one of the last air links between the Asian financial hubs, with a Feb. 22 service by Cathay Pacific Ltd.’s HK Express unit the sole flight from Singapore to Hong Kong remaining this month. The route was one of the busiest in the world before the pandemic hit.
Bookings for flights from Singapore to Hong Kong were unavailable until March 7, Scoot’s website showed. Scoot was operating a daily service.
The ban comes after Hong Kong authorities blocked Singapore Airlines from flying to the city for two weeks from Feb. 16 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 outbreak since the pandemic started.
Representatives for Scoot and the Hong Kong government didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Cathay operated one flight to and from Singapore in February and has just one next month, on March 19, its website showed. That’s 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 U.K. and U.S. as well as transit travel from everywhere except Taiwan and mainland China. Most people who manage to get into the city face two weeks mandatory hotel quarantine.
