The Ministry of Transport (MOT) in Vietnam is planning to launch another 9 international commercial flights landing at Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi and Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City).

This is a part of the ministry’s proposal to the People’s Committees of the two major cities in Vietnam regarding the schedule of regular international commercial flights between Vietnam and other countries. Based on the recommendations of these two cities, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) will consider and approve flights with providing license.

According to the ministry, these new flights will be operated by the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines and the low cost carrier VietJet Air.

In addition, it is expected that Hanoi will have four flights landing every week (on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday), with a maximum of 1,304 seats. On the other hand, Ho Chi Minh City will have five flights landing on the same days with a maximum of 1,290 seats.

After Vietnam successfully contained the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of last month, Vietnam Airlines resumed passenger flight on the Hanoi-Seoul-Hanoi route on September 25, while VietJet Air resumed flight between Ho Chi Minh City and Seoul on September 30.

Last month, the CAAV sent a letter to its partners in China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan, announcing the reopening plan. All partners agreed to the plan, but only the Republic of Korea moved forward with flight operations.

The airlines are required to send northern and southern airport authorities the planned list of passengers 12 hours prior to the flights take off and the official list of passengers 30 minutes before departure.

In regard to COVID-19 transmission in Vietnam, the country has reported a total number of 1,124 confirmed cases which are under treatment and 35 patients have died due to the virus. However, 1,030 patients who tested positive to COVID-19 have completely recovered from the virus, as of Thursday (Oct 15).