International flights to Vietnam resume after two years

By Hoang Phong January 1, 2022 | 07:26 pm PT

Passengers get off a Vietnam Airlines plane arriving from Cambodia at Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCMC on January 1, 2022, the first regular commercial flight to Vietnam in two years. Photo courtesy of Vietnam Airlines

The first regular commercial flight in nearly two years arrived in Vietnam with 121 passengers from the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.

Vietnam Airlines flight VN852 landed at Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCMC at 6:45 p.m., Saturday.

The passengers were overseas Vietnamese and people from Japan, Germany, South Korea, Indonesia and France, all fully vaccinated or recovered from Covid-19, the carrier said in a press release.

They also needed to test negative in a real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test done within three days before the flight.

Vietnam had closed its borders and grounded all regular international flights in March 2020, only allowing in its nationals and foreign experts, investors and highly skilled workers coming by special flights.

The government has approved a two-week first phase of resumption of flights to nine destinations starting January 1.