HCMC – The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has proposed that air passengers should not be sent into an isolation facility upon their arrival at a destination.
The proposal comes as Hanoi City requires all arriving air passengers to quarantine at either a designated hotel or a state-run quarantine center. If they choose to isolate at a hotel, they would have to pay from VND1.3 million to VND4 million per day per guest.
Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh said on October 8 that the Government had approved a pilot reopening of several domestic air routes from October 10 to 20.
According to CAAV, 19 flights had been licensed but could not be operated due to different requirements set by different provinces, the local media reported.
Vietjet’s return flight between Hanoi and Danang on October 10 could not take off as Hanoi required that all passengers be sent to a quarantine facility but specific quarantine instructions are not available.
In addition, Bamboo Airways failed to operate four flights from HCMC to Thua Thien-Hue and Quang Binh provinces due to the regulations that passengers must register in advance and get the provinces’ approval for their arrival and must be quarantined.
Therefore, the Ministry of Transport was asked to give guidelines to local authorities to find common ground on the requirements for air passengers.
According to CAAV, except for Hanoi and HCMC, the vaccination rate in other provinces is low, while many provinces required that passengers get two vaccine shots. Thus, the number of eligible passengers will be small.
CAAV also proposed eliminating the requirement on the physical distance between passengers on aircraft as passengers must test negative for Covid-19 to be allowed to board aircraft.
On October 10, the prime minister asked cities and provinces to ensure smooth transportation nationwide while living with Covid safely and flexibly and effectively controlling the pandemic.
The resumption of transportation activities is extremely important to help production and business recover and meet the travel demands of local residents.
However, some localities have failed to comply with the prime minister’s requirements as well as the regulations of the Ministries of Transport and Health. Therefore, the Government leader asked localities to comply with the Government’s directions.
The Ministries of Transport and Health were assigned to monitor, instruct and inspect localities’ compliance of directions, address those breaking regulations and report to the prime minister cases which are beyond the jurisdiction of the two ministries.
