Australian PM says Singapore travel bubble could be established within next week

A quarantine-free travel bubble between Australia and Singapore could be established within the next week after PM Scott Morrison confirmed the two countries were in the final stages of concluding an agreement. Australians may also be able to fly to Bangkok, Phuket, Johannesburg and Fiji before Christmas after Qantas and Jetstar announced they were restarting international flights out of Sydney ahead of schedule. The Singapore arrangement will be similar to the travel bubble Australia established with the South Island of New Zealand this week. The talks are focused on allowing vaccinated students and business travellers to travel freely between Australia and Singapore as the first step, before opening up to tourists. The travel bubble would be dependent on whether states relax their quarantine arrangements, but NSW and Victoria have already scrapped mandatory hotel quarantine for all vaccinated international arrivals from November 1. Morrison said on Friday morning the government was in the “final stages of concluding an arrangement with the Singapore government”. “We anticipate that being able to be achieved within the next week or so, as we would open up to more visa class holders coming out of Singapore, we will see that occur.” He said the arrangement would be open to states and territories that were open “in the same way as they are here in Sydney” and that it aligned with the timetable Qantas has announced for its flights to and from Singapore.<br/>