Domestic aviation facing host of challenges

While international air transport is now showing signs of improvement, Vietnam’s domestic aviation sector is still grappling with a number of challenges.

In the third quarter of 2021, airports around the country catered to just 429,000 passengers, a 97.1 per cent decline over the same period of 2020, according to the Director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), Mr. Dinh Viet Thang. The Hanoi People’s Committee has sent a document to the Ministry of Transport (MoT) disagreeing with a plan to resume flights into and out of Noi Bai International Airport, with the domestic aviation industry still unable to return to normal as a result.

The CAAV has also issued an official dispatch on continuing to limit the number of flights from cities and provinces, in implementing Directive No. 16. Under this, Vietnamese airlines are required to cease selling tickets on domestic routes.

Previously, on July 21, following directions from the Prime Minister, the CAAV continued to request that airlines stop flying on as many of their regular domestic passenger routes as possible. Vietnam Airlines is allowed to fly Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City with a frequency of two return flights a day, but has been unable to do so due to social distancing.

Only cargo flights and flights carrying passengers on duty in Covid-19 pandemic prevention efforts as well as those transporting citizens from southern provinces to localities and citizens traveling between two localities that are applying social distancing under Directive No. 16 are permitted to operate.