AIRLINES TO INCREASE FREQUENCY OF DOMESTIC FLIGHTS

The Ministry of Transport announced on Tuesday that more domestic flights will be allowed to operate over the next month.

It comes after a successful pilot operation to gradually restore flight travel.

From October 21, a maximum of six daily return flights will be allowed on the routes connecting Hà Nội – HCM City, Hà Nội – Đà Nẵng, and Đà Nẵng – HCM City.

After November 14, it will increase to seven flights on those routes until the end of November.

On other routes, the maximum will be four flights each way per day.

The frequency of flights by each airline on each route will be increased by one per day on November 1 and 15 if the average seat occupancy of all airlines on the route during the previous 7 days reached at least 75 per cent.

During the pilot period from October 10-17, Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Bamboo Airways and Pacific Airlines operated 193 flights on 17 routes to and from 17 out of 22 airports.

The total number of passengers was around 12,900, of whom 49 per cent flew with Vietnam Airlines, 32.5 per cent with Vietjet Air, 15.6 per cent with Bamboo Airways and 2.9 per cent with Pacific Airlines.

The Transport Ministry also set conditions from October 21, which require passengers to meet one of the three criteria, either having certificates for full vaccination for at least 14 days and no later than 12 months before departure, or recovery from COVID-19 no later than six months before departure, or testing negative to SARS-CoV-2 using RT-PCR and rapid antigen testing methods no later than 72 hours before departure.

Source: VNS