International air routes to 20 countries, territories reopened

ABO/NDO - Vietnam has so far reopened air routes to 20 countries and territories, compared to 28 in the 2019 winter flight schedule before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, a transport official has said.

On February 15, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) sent notifications to foreign aviation authorities and issued a notice to airmen (NOTAM) to airlines to inform about the removal of restrictions on regular and charter international flights.

Pilots on a flight of Vietnam Airlines from Ho Chi Minh City to Kuala Lumpur. (Photo: Vietnam Airlines).

So far, international air routes to 20 countries and territories have been reopened, namely Cambodia, Hong Kong (China), Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Taiwan (China), Thailand, Turkey, the UAE, Laos, China, France, Germany, the UK, Australia, Russia, and the US.

Eight others to which air routes haven’t been resumed consist of Brunei, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Macao (China), Finland, Italy, and Switzerland, Tran Bao Ngoc, Director of the Transportation Department at the Ministry of Transport (MoT), told a press meeting on February 22.

There are currently 370 international flights from/to Vietnam per week each way, compared to 4,185 in the 2019 winter flight schedule, he noted.

Meanwhile, six carriers, namely Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Pacific Airlines, Bamboo Airways, Vietravel Airlines, and Vasco, are operating 56 domestic air routes with 2,570 flights per week each way, down two routes and 217 flights from the flight scheduled in the 2019 winter.

Road and railway transport has basically come back to normal, but the passenger traffic hasn’t recovered due to concerns about the pandemic, Ngoc added.

(Source: NDO)