HCMC – The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) is seeking to resume international air services linking Vietnam with France, the UK, Russia, and Germany.
Dinh Viet Thang, head of CAAV, proposed the Transport Ministry allow CAAV to inform its counterparts in these countries that airlines can resume operating regular international flights linking Vietnam and these countries. Each airline can operate 10 weekly flights per route.
Since regular international flights were resumed from January 1, airlines have operated 16 flights carrying nearly 1,000 passengers from the U.S., Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, and Taiwan to Vietnam, CAAV said.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, around 140,000 Vietnamese citizens overseas are planning to fly home to celebrate the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday or Tet. Besides, the ministry forecast that over 30,000 passengers would arrive in Vietnam per week, including Vietnamese citizens, overseas Vietnamese, and foreigners who are diplomats, experts and investors.
CAAV is facilitating negotiations with its counterparts in foreign countries and territories to resume international flights and increase the flight frequency to meet the demand among overseas Vietnamese passengers seeking to travel home for Tet.
In Europe, many overseas Vietnamese expected regular international flights between Europe and Vietnam would resume soon so that they could return home for Tet.
Passengers in Europe normally travel to Vietnam through airports in France’s Paris, Germany’s Frankfurt, the UK’s London, and Russia’s Moscow. However, they currently have to stop over at airports that operate direct flights to Vietnam. Hence, the resumption of direct air services linking the region with Vietnam is the need of the hour.
As for other markets, CAAV had worked with its counterparts in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore, informing them of the increase in the flight frequency between Vietnam and these countries to 14 weekly flights per route for each airline.
CAAV will also work with Thailand to increase the frequency to 10 weekly flights per route for each airline. As for mainland China and Laos, they have yet to decide on the flight resumption with Vietnam.
