Russia urged to restart direct flights to Hanoi

During a Hanoi meeting with Russian Minister of Emergency Situations Sen. Lieut. Gen Kurenkov Aleksandr Vyacheslavovich on Thursday, Chinh suggested both sides develop specific plans for such a resumption of connections between Hanoi and Moscow, the government news portal reported.

Before the pandemic, Russia was one of the 10 largest markets for inbound tourism in Vietnam.

In 2019, Vietnam received a record 646,000 tourists from Russia, making it the Southeast Asian nation’s sixth largest tourism source after mainland China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the U.S.

In March last year, Vietnam Airlines, the only Vietnamese carrier to fly to Russia, suspended its Hanoi-Moscow service due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

For nearly two years, passengers traveling between Vietnam and Russia have had to travel via transit flights operated by airlines such as Emirates Airlines, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines. Without non-stop flights, the cost of tickets surged.

So far this year, Vietnam received on 97,000 Russian tourists, mainly arriving on charter flights, five times less than the same period in 2019.