Bamboo Airways on Tuesday operated a flight from Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand to Kaunas International Airport in the Republic of Lithuania to repatriate 220 European passengers.
The flight, using the wide-body aircraft Boeing 787-9 named Ha Long Bay, was operated at the request of the European Union (EU), the Government of Lithuania and under the approval and direction of the Vietnamese Government. This is also the first flight of a Vietnamese airline to Lithuania.
“After taking thorough consideration based on the criteria of professionalism, speed and safety, we have come to the decision of choosing Bamboo Airways as the carrier to charter this flight,” a leader of the diplomatic service of the Republic of Lithuania in Viet Nam said.
Earlier, on March 28, Bamboo Airways announced that the airline had suspended accepting foreign passengers to enter Viet Nam on all charter flights for humanitarian purposes during the peak period of prevention of COVID-19 across the country, starting from 28 March to 15 April. This solution is to reduce the heavy burden for medical staff and functional forces at this time when the disease situation in Viet Nam is getting more complicated, and many quarantine facilities in Viet Nam are now overloaded.
Therefore, Bamboo Airways would not carry passengers on the return flight to Viet Nam.
Bamboo Airways will consider the re-opening of charter flights with foreign passengers entering Viet Nam based on the specific situation after the peak period of COVID-19, which is expected after April 15.
Professionalism and safety
Nguyen The Kien, the Honorary Consul of Lithuania in HCM City, said that the agency had proposed to the European Union and the European diplomatic missions in Viet Nam to look for and work with more than 10 domestic and foreign airlines to discuss the possibility of making humanitarian flights to repatriate European citizens.
To ensure maximum safety when operating the flight, Bamboo Airways has cooperated with the related authorities to perform health check and medical declarations for the passengers before the flight; ensure a minimum distance of two metres between passengers when queuing for aviation procedures and boarding. All passengers are required to wear face masks during the flight.
Before the flight departure and after returning from the Republic of Lithuania, the entire cockpit, passenger cabin, cargo hold of the aircraft will be disinfected following the highest standards to absolutely prevent the risk of virus infection.
The flight crew and service staff and technical staff are experienced, highly specialised personnel who are carefully selected and trained and equipped with specialised medical protective clothing to ensure maximum safety during the flight.
Recently, Bamboo Airways has actively co-ordinated with diplomatic agencies to operate charter flights for humanitarian purposes. On March 25, a special one-way flight from Ha Noi to Prague was also carried out by Bamboo Airways, repatriating nearly 300 Czech and European citizens from Viet Nam. This is the first flight of a Vietnamese private airline to Europe. — VNS