Vietnamese airlines will resume scheduled flights to China from Vietnam on Sunday for the first time since the pandemic lockdown.
Vietnam Airlines intends to resume all flights between Hanoi and Nanjing and Shanghai, as well as between Ho Chi Minh City and five other large Chinese airports: Chengdu, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Each destination will have six flights per week.
Beginning in March, the national airline will increase the frequency of its flights to Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou.
Vietjet Air will also resume flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Chengdu, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Wuhan, each with six weekly flights. Effective January 23, VietJet will launch flights from Cam Ranh to Changsha and from Chengdu.
Pacific Airlines will open routes from Hanoi to Hangzhou and Nanning, with two weekly flights each. The airline also expects to resume flights to Guangzhou and Fuzhou this summer.
Bamboo Airways will resume its route between Hanoi and Tianjin on just one flight per week. But the company expects to launch six new flights to China this summer.
Vietravel Airlines does not currently fly to China, although it plans to begin charter flights from Cam Ranh and Da Nang to Hangzhou.
Passengers in this first phase are expected to be primarily business travelers, and students. Without many tourists, CAAV reports that the air market between Vietnam and China will not pick up right away.
To encourage recovery, Vietnamese airlines have suggested easing visa policies for Chinese tourists.
On December 30 last year, the Civil Aviation Administration of China announced that restrictions on regular international flights to the country had been lifted, and airlines may resume international flights with flight frequencies following bilateral agreements.
Currently, to enter China, passengers must have certain documents requested by the Chinese authorities, such as the results of a PCR test 48 hours before the flight.