INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS MAY RESUME LATER THIS YEAR: AVIATION AUTHORITY

Flight routes between Vietnam and Northeast Asia and Europe may resume later this year, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) anticipates.

A CAAV representative said Monday that they expect Covid-19 vaccination rates in Vietnam and the rest of the world, especially in important aviation markets for Vietnam like Northeast Asia and Europe, would increase greatly in the second half of 2021.

This would enable the achievement of herd immunity, becoming an important step to the gradual reopening of international flight routes in the third and fourth quarter.

The domestic aviation market is also expected to recover in the third quarter, with over 70 million passengers expected, the representative said.

Back in March, the CAAV had proposed the reopening of international flight routes in stages, where certain flights could resume this September under a "vaccine passport" program, which allows a shortened quarantine period for eligible entrants. A maximum threshold of seven such flights per week was proposed.

Vietnam closed its borders and canceled all international flights in March last year, and has since allowed only certain categories of visitors with strict Covid-19 quarantine requirements. The quarantine period was increased to to 21 days recently as the country battled a more widespread outbreak with new strains of the novel coronavirus.

However, Vietnam is now working on a vaccine passport scheme that would allow fully vaccinated entrants to enter certain regions like Quang Ninh and Phu Quoc with their centralized quarantine period shortened to seven days.

Source: Vnexpress