Int'l air passengers to Vietnam in October down 60%

By Hoang Phong October 23, 2022 | 10:56 pm PT

Passengers at Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Chieu

Foreign air passenger numbers through 22 Vietnamese airports in October fell 61.8% against pre-pandemic levels to 1.3 million amid slow international tourism recovery.

There was a total of 7.2 million air passengers in October, down 23.3% against October 2019, according to statistics from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.

Domestic passengers dropped 0.8% between the periods.

Vietnamese carriers only served 3.5 million passengers in October, falling by 20% against pre-pandemic levels.

Vietnam reopened its borders to foreign tourists in mid-March this year.

Aviation officials expect the number of international passengers going through Vietnamese airports this year to reach 10 million, or around 24% of pre-pandemic levels.

They expect the number of air passengers to increase during the year-end tourism season and the Lunar New Year holiday.