Viet Nam has reopened international routes to and from 20 countries and territories, said Tran Bao Ngoc, director of the Transport Department under the Ministry of Transport (MoT).
The country opened international flights to and from 28 countries and territories according to the winter flight schedule applied in 2019.
Specifically, Viet Nam's international routes have reopened to countries and territories including Cambodia, Hong Kong (China), Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Taiwan (China), Thailand, and Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Laos, mainland China, France, Germany, UK, Australia, Russia and the US.
The remaining eight countries that have not reopened flights are Brunei, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Macau, Finland, Italy and Switzerland.
The frequency of international routes to and from Viet Nam is 370 flights per week per way, equivalent to 53 flights per day per way, while the frequency of international routes in the winter flight schedule in 2019 was 4,185 flights per week per way, meaning 598 flights per day per way.
Ngoc said that following the Government's direction, the MoT has assigned the Civil Aviation Authority of Viet Nam to actively evaluate and discuss with partners’ aviation authorities to resume regular international flights with gradually increasing frequency.
The process ensures safe, flexible adaptation and effective control of the COVID-19 pandemic, creating favourable conditions for travel with guidance on medical supervision on entry.
Regarding domestic transport, Ngoc said, six airlines including Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Pacific Airlines, Bamboo Airways, Vietravel Airlines and VASCO were operating 56 domestic routes, with a total frequency of 2,570 flights per week per way, which meant 367 flights per day per way.
It is a decrease of two routes and 217 flights per week per way, equivalent to 31 flights per day per way compared to the 2019 winter flight schedule.
“The number of passengers travelling by air has increased significantly, at some periods such as holidays and Lunar New Year, it even caused congestion at some airports. The MoT has directed concerned authorities to deal with the issue,” said Ngoc.
Air transport would continue to maintain and increase the frequency for domestic routes, as well as gradually reopen international routes, he said.
As for road and rail transport, Ngoc said it had basically returned to a new normal situation, but the number of passengers had not recovered.
Some road routes, especially in mountainous provinces, have very few passengers, leading to the problem that transport enterprises cannot organise normal work for some routes.
The MoT will continue to have solutions to improve service quality, attract passengers to use various types of road, rail and waterway transport, thereby returning to normal services. — VNS