Don't quarantine air passengers: Vietnam aviation authority

The CAAV made the proposal to the Ministry of Transport as Hanoi, northern port city Hai Phong, central Thua Thien Hue and Lam Dong provinces are requesting people arriving by air to be quarantined in either centralized facilities or hotels chosen by local authorities for seven days, during which they must be tested.

Arrivals are required to pay all related fees.

Passengers are also required to be fully vaccinated at least two weeks before or recovered from Covid-19 within six months.

The CAAV added the conditions for flying should be adjusted because for now, aside from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the vaccine coverage rates of other provinces are low, which means a lot of people will not be eligible to fly.

The authority suggested that, it should be regulated that as long as passengers come from a "green zone," which means an area where no Covid-19 community cases have been detected in 14 consecutive days, will be allowed to fly, under one condition that they must test negative 72 hours prior to departure.

The rule of keeping a distance among passengers on the plane should also be removed as it would contribute to raising air fares, said the CAAV.

On the first day of resuming domestic flights in Vietnam Sunday, airlines had been able to operate only 11 in 38 flights that had been scheduled, with the number of passengers remaining modest.

A flight from HCMC to Da Nang only had 75 passengers while in the opposite direction, there were only 14 passengers on board. Another flight from HCMC to Phu Quoc Island off the southern coast only had 30 passengers, and 37 on its return journey from the island.

Of the 27 flights that were canceled Sunday, some had the bad weather to blame while others had been called off due to quarantine rules among localities.

In specific, two flights from HCMC and Da Nang to Hanoi had been dropped as passengers could not fulfill the requirement on quarantine.

At the request of Hanoi, passengers taking commercial flights to the capital now have to acquire confirmation of the place they would choose for quarantine before departure.

To fly to Hanoi, people arriving in the capital from HCMC, the country's Covid-19 epicenter, need to stay at centralized quarantine facilities or at one of 20 designated hotels for seven days and be tested, all at their own cost.

People arriving from Da Nang need to be isolated at their residence for seven days, during which they will be tested twice.

Both groups need to continue to monitor their health at home for another week after that.

Meanwhile, a flight from HCMC to Hue was canceled because Thue Thien-Hue Province required passengers to make registrations on quarantine and wait for the province’s approval before flying.