A plane of Vietnam Airlines (Photo: VNA)According to Vietnam Airlines, the national flag carrier hasoperated 12 flights bringing Vietnamese citizens home from the US since May2020 as a result of travel restrictions triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
No more of such flights from the US have been availablesince last August as the quota set by US authorities has been reached, despitethe tremendous demand from Vietnamese people in the US wishing to return home.For this reason, Vietnam Airlines plans to seek permission for repatriationflights in the form of regular commercial services.
Given the latest forecast that it will take until atleast 2023 for the aviation industry to recover to the pre-pandemic level in2019, Vietnam Airlines hopes the move will help it increase revenue and lessenfinancial loss caused by the COVID-19.
The plan will be carried out in two phases. In the firstphase, the carrier will conduct flights in the form of regular commercialservices, serving the repatriation of Vietnamese people in the US, and traveldemand between the two countries among diplomats, officials, experts,businesspeople, students and relatives of foreigners.
Based on evaluation of the recovery of air travel betweenthe two countries after the pandemic is under control, Vietnam Airlines willcontinue with its plan on the second phase which is for commercial purpose. Thesecond phase is expected to start in 2022.
In 2019, Vietnam received a Category 1 aviation safetyrating from the US Department of Transportation’s Federal AviationAdministration (FAA), which allows Vietnamese carriers to establish directservices to the US./.
VNA
