HCMC – The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has proposed limiting the number of all-inclusive inbound flights bringing citizens home to the Hanoi-based Noi Bai International Airport and the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC to ease the overload of Covid testing there.
The proposal is aimed at easing the congestion facing the two international airports when they conduct rapid Covid tests on arriving passengers, the local media reported.
The authority expects the Ministry of Transport to propose the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as a major agency in approving all-inclusive flights, minimize the number of such flights to the two airports until the regulations on rapid tests for arriving passengers are adjusted, according to the authority’s dispatch sent to the Ministry of Transport.
Between January 4 to 7, as many as 47 international flights, with over 6,000 passengers on board, landed in Vietnam, including 16 regular commercial flights, 20 all-inclusive ones and 11 flights transporting experts and tourists, according to the aviation authority.
Among these international flights, 15 of them, including three all-inclusive flights, landed at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport, with a total of nearly 1,280 passengers on board, and 23 flights, with eight all-inclusive ones, arrived at the Noi Bai International Airport with 2,950 passengers.
To ease the overload at the Covid testing areas at the two airports, CAAV has closely worked with local airlines to suitably arrange the landing time of flights, but the air carriers have found it hard to change their departure time, leading to the ineffective adjustment of the arrival time.
All commercial flights use scheduled slots at foreign and domestic airports, so it is difficult to adjust the landing/taking-off time. Meanwhile, all-inclusive flights are irregular chartered flights, making them more flexible in operation, especially in terms of landing locations in Vietnam.
Over the past few months, most of the all-inclusive flights have been allowed to land at the Van Don, Danang and Cam Ranh international airports by a special working team under the Ministry of Transport, so the operations at the Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat airports were hardly affected, said CAAV.
