Planes of several carriers at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM City.(Photo vietnambiz.vn) Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s newestcarrier Vietravel Airlines has delayed its plan to launch first flights due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The airline was given principle approval from Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to start operationsin October, but the plans have been put on hold.
Founded by one of the country’s largest tour operators Vietravel, theairline is scheduled to start commercial operations in the third quarter ofthis year with a fleet of three airplanes, which could be raised to eight by2025.
The airline plans to provide charter flights for its own tourists andgeneral passengers, targeting the one million tourists Vietravel servesannually. It will be headquartered in central Thua Thien-Hue province’s Phu Bai InternationalAirport.
Up to now, the company had yet to set up a specific date for the airline totake off, a company representative said.
Currently, Vietnam has five operational airlines. They are national flagcarrier Vietnam Airlines, budget carrier Jetstar Pacific Airlines (with amajority owned by Vietnam Airlines), Vietjet Air, Vietnam Air Services (VASCO) and Bamboo Airways. Two others - Kite Airand Vietstar Air are waiting for operational authorisation.
Vietnamese airlines are among many others around the world suffering heavylosses caused by COVID-19. According to the estimations of Vietnameseairlines, the transport ministry said that the initial damage due to stoppingflights is about 30 trillion VND (1.3 billion USD).
The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam has recently issued twoscenarios. The first one is that if the disease is controlled before April, thetotal number of passengers reaches 67 million, down 15 percent compared to2019.
The second one, in case the market worsens, and the pandemic is controlledin the second quarter, the total market reaches 61.2 million passengers, down22.6 percent year-on-year./.
VNA
