According to the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, from January 4 to 7, a total of 47 international flights landed in Vietnam including 16 regular international commercial flights, 20 paid package flights, and 11 professional/tourist flights transporting 6,094 passengers.
Among the flights mentioned above, 15 flights carrying 1,285 passengers landed at Ho Chi Minh City-based Tan Son Nhat International Airport comprising three combo flights with 640 passengers, accounting for 49.8 percent of the total number of passengers. Meanwhile 23 flights carrying 2,950 passengers landed at Hanoi-based Noi Bai International Airport including eight combo flights with 1,754 people accounting for 59.5 percent.
Therefore, to ease passenger overload at the area for rapid testing at Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat international airports, the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam has closely coordinated with local airlines in spacing out the amount of time between the departure and arrival times.
However, the air carriers have found it hard to change their departure time because all commercial flights use scheduled slots at foreign and domestic airports, so it is difficult to adjust the landing/taking-off time.
The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam proposed the Ministry of Transport to request the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which will approve combo flights to minimize combo repatriation flights carrying citizens back home to land at two domestic international airports Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat until there are adjustments to regulations on rapid testing for passengers on entry.
Moreover, all-inclusive flights are irregular chartered flights, making them more flexible in operation, especially in terms of landing locations in Vietnam whereas commercial and professional flights are flights using historical slots at foreign and Vietnamese airports, so the flight schedule is difficult to adjust.
The adjusted combo flights landing at Van Don airport in the Northern Province of Quang Ninh, Da Nang airport in the Central City of Da Nang, and Cam Ranh airport in the South-Central Province of Khanh Hoa will not have much impact on operations at Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat international airports.
