By Farah Master and Aradhana Aravindan

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE Oct 15 (Reuters) - Hong Kong andSingapore will set up a travel bubble, the two cities announcedon Thursday, as they moved to re-establish overseas travel linksand lift the hurdle of quarantine for visiting foreigners.

Hong Kong's Commerce Secretary Edward Yau and Singapore'sTransport Minister Ong Ye Kung said travellers under the schemewould need to get negative COVID-19 test results and travel ondedicated flights.

Further details, including the launch date, will be fleshedout in coming weeks, they said.

"It is a safe, careful but significant step forward torevive air travel, and provide a model for future collaborationwith other parts of the world," Singapore's Ong said.

For Hong Kong, which has banned non-residents since March,the deal with Singapore is its first resumption of travel tieswith another city. Travellers from mainland China andneighbouring Macau still face 14 days in quarantine.

Singapore has already announced pacts on essential businessand official travel from China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia,South Korea, and opened unilaterally to general visitors fromBrunei, New Zealand, Vietnam and most of Australia.

This week, Singapore eased quarantine to just seven days for travellers from Hong Kong, from 14 earlier. It has put the cityon its list of low-risk places.

International travel in Asia has collapsed during thepandemic because of border closures, with passenger numbers down97% in August, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines says. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2H3129

Following the news, shares in Hong Kong airline CathayPacific 0293.HK surged more than 7 percent in afternoon trade.

Hong Kong's daily coronavirus infections have dropped mostlyinto single digits since August and it has eased some socialdistancing curbs. Singapore has similarly seen its daily casesfall below 10.

(Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/ )

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Coronavirus: knowns and unknowns https://reut.rs/2UHIgvz FACTBOX-Latest on global spread of coronavirus ID:nL8N2AB5TN FACTBOX-Worldwide coronavirus deaths exceed a million ID:nL4N2AY3AS

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Writing by Farah Master; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) ((farah.master@thomsonreuters.com; +852 3462 7709;))