Despite Vietnam officially lifting COVID-19 restrictions on international flights from February 15, the restoration of international air routes will largely be dependent on bilateral negotiations with its partners, according to insiders.
A representative of a major Vietnamese airline revealed that although the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has informed about removing COVID-19 curbs, there will be no spike in the number of international flights during the early days of reopening.
The representative affirmed that it will take time for Vietnamese authorities to successfully conduct negotiations with their partners, noting that local airlines will be unable to resume a large number of international air routes soon.
According to several carriers, local businesses are in the process of preparing their aircraft fleet, flight crews, and logistics services to restart and launch new routes as soon as the country successfully conducts bilateral negotiations with its partners in the time ahead.
Specifically, Vietravel Airlines is co-ordinating with domestic travel partners and its overseas agents in order to bring in tourists from abroad and from the nation to other regional countries such as Thailand and Indonesia at the end of the second quarter, as well as markets in Northeast Asia in the third and fourth quarters.
Previously, national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines announced that it has moved to reopen international routes to the UK, Australia, Japan, Thailand, and Malaysia, while Bamboo Airways also launched international flights to the Republic of Korea (RoK), Taiwan (China), Singapore, Germany, and Australia.
Furthermore, low-cost carrier Vietjet Air has also resumed connecting routes to Japan, Singapore, the RoK, and Taiwan (China), with further plans in the pipeline to operate air routes to markets such as India, Russia, and Australia in the near future.
According to details given by the Southern Airports Authority, there will be 735 flights taking off and landing at Tan Son Nhat International Airport as of February 15, with an estimated 78,000 passengers passing through the airport.
Tan Son Nhat international airport is expected to operate roughly 24 international flights on the first day of reopening all international routes, with the number of passengers reaching nearly 2,600.
Vov.vn
