At a meeting on September 29, the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam Director Dinh Viet Thang said that in the third quarter of 2021, the output of inbound/outbound flight operations decreased by 78%, while transit flight operations increased by 27.9% over the same period of 2020.

In the third quarter, airports across the country served only 429,000 passengers, down 97.1% year on year, including 98,000 international arrivals and 331,000 domestic passengers.

The Ministry of Transport has developed a plan to restore the domestic flight network in the new period, after the pandemic is controlled and the vaccination coverage reaches a certain rate.

Thang said that the Ministry of Health has basically agreed with this plan. Accordingly, passengers only need to get at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine or have a certificate of recovery from Covid-19 to be allowed to fly. Those who do not belong to these two categories need to show negative testing results against Covid-19.

He said the biggest obstacle in implementing the plan to resume aviation operation come from localities, especially Hanoi. Recently, the Hanoi People's Committee has sent a document to the Ministry of Transport requesting to stop domestic commercial flights to Hanoi’s Noi Bai international airport.

According to Thang, restoring transport is a matter of survival. Therefore, he suggested that the Ministry of Transport report to the Government to seek a common policy for the whole country, otherwise it would be very difficult to resume domestic air transport.

The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam also proposed only opening flights to take passengers from Hanoi to other places and in the opposite direction aircrafts would only carry goods.

According to the air transport restoration plan, in localities or areas that are implementing social distancing measures according to Directive 16, no transport activities will be organized. However, airports in these areas are allowed to operate and transport passengers from these localities to others where they do not apply the Directive 16.

For localities or areas that are implementing social distancing according to Directive 15 and Directive 19, the Ministry of Transport offers two options with four specific phases.

Option 1: Apply the 5K principle and the regulations on traffic participation of the Ministry of Health.

Option 2: Passengers must be fully vaccinated with two vaccine doses against SARS-CoV-2 (the latest shot must be at least 14 days to up to 12 months before departure); passengers must be recovered from Covid-19 for no more than six months; both subjects must test negative for SARS-CoV-2 within 72 hours from departure.

For the operation of inter-provincial passenger buses, the Ministry of Transport proposes four phases, 10 days each, with the number of trips and the number of passengers each trip to be gradually increased phase by phase. In phase two, normal operation will be resumed.

The Ministry of Transport offers two options for air passenger transport. Each option also includes four phases, with the flight frequency will gradually increase, up to the normal level in phase 4.

Vu Diep

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