HCMC – The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has written to the Ministry of Transport proposing reopening international air routes in four phases, starting from the fourth quarter of this year.
Under the plan sent to the ministry, in the first stage, full-package international flights will restart to transport Vietnamese citizens, while others will be piloted to transport foreign visitors to some parts of the nation, such as Phu Quoc, Khanh Hoa and Quang Ninh.
Accordingly, the local airlines will work with tour operators to operate international flights with a full package covering Covid-19 quarantine and testing fees, meals and flight tickets, based on the anti-pandemic regulations of each locality which allows these flights. Passengers on board the flights must have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or have recovered from the disease.
The flight frequency will depend on each locality’s capacity of quarantine. The airports that can handle these flights include Van Don, Danang and Cam Ranh, while others allowed by the provincial and municipal governments can also serve these flights.
Meanwhile, pilot flights transporting international tourists will allow passengers with a negative test result taken within 72 hours before departure and proof of full vaccination, the local media reported.
There will be one daily flight to each of the localities participating in the full-package pilot international tourism program. The frequency will be raised to two one month later.
The authority also proposed piloting scheduled international flights transporting passengers who have been fullly vaccinated or recovered from Covid before departure in the next stage from January 2022.
Passengers will be allowed to fly to Vietnam only when they complete payments for a seven-day paid quarantine at a designated hotel or a state-run quarantine center.
In the third phase from April 2022, based on the Covid vaccination process in Vietnam and the Covid situation, the quarantine mandate will be lifted for passengers on board scheduled international flights to Vietnam. Instead, the Covid vaccine passport will be applied.
In the final phase from July 2022 onward, depending on the demand of passengers, international flights will be resumed.
During this stage, airlines will be allowed to sell air tickets based on the demands of passengers and the availability of take-off and landing slots.
