Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh has requested the ministries of Public Security, Transport, Health, Foreign Affairs, and Information and Communications to urgently perform their assigned tasks to carry out a pilot plan that will resume international commercial flights on January 1, 2022.

Illustrative photo (Source: VNA)

Earlier, in a notice, the Deputy PM concluded that in line with the strategy of safe, flexible, and effective adaptation to COVID-19, the reopening is necessary to help ease difficulties facing aviation firms, accelerate economic recovery, and facilitate overseas Vietnamese to return home on the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday. However, the flight resumption must ensure effective control of the pandemic.

Minh agreed with the plan, which restores regular international passenger flights to areas with a high safety rate, which are Beijing/Guangzhou (China), Tokyo (Japan), Seoul (the Republic of Korea) , Taipei (Taiwan - China), Bangkok (Thailand), Singapore, Vientiane (Laos), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), and San Francisco/ Los Angeles (USA). The plan will be done following the Ministry of Health’s pandemic prevention guidance for people on entry and begin on January 1 next year.

In preparation for the pilot plan, the Ministry of Health has been tasked with issuing medical guidelines for people entering the country on these international commercial flights, and consulting with experts, businesses and the general public regarding the matter.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the health ministry continues negotiating with other nations and territories on mutual recognition of the “vaccine passports”.

The ministries of Health, Public Security, Information and Communications, meanwhile, have been assigned to issue medical declaration software that is generally applicable to air travel to facilitate the declaration of passengers, the operation of aviation enterprises, and the medical monitoring, control and tracing of people on entry.

Source: VNA