In the next two months, 9/10 flight routes to China – Vietnam Airlines’ Top 3 most crowded market – will be restored after nearly 3 years of Covid.

From March, the airline will resume flights between Hanoi and Beijing with a frequency of 3 flights a week. At the same time, the airline also increased the frequency of flights connecting Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with Guangzhou and Shanghai. Each of these routes will be operated by the airline with 4 flights a week.

This is a significant increase in frequency compared to the current when the airline only operates 1-2 flights per week on these routes. The number of passengers between China and Vietnam in 2019 was about 8.1 million, accounting for 19% and in the top 3 markets with the largest number of passengers of Vietnam Airlines.

From April, Vietnam Airlines will reopen four routes between Da Nang and Guangzhou, Shanghai and Chengdu, and between Hanoi and Chengdu, with a frequency of two flights a week on each route.

From September, the airline plans to operate wide-body Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 ships on routes between Hanoi and Beijing, and between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Shanghai.

After nearly 3 years of stagnation, Vietnamese airlines have re-operated routes to China from the beginning of January 2023. Vietjet Air also operates routes between Ho Chi Minh City and Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Sichuan, and Wuhan with a frequency of 6 flights per week. Bamboo Airways also had a flight from Hanoi to Tianjin. The airline plans to operate six new routes to China from the summer.

The reopening and increasing frequency of flights to China to meet travel demand, tourism between the two countries is forecasted to recover positively from March. With the optimistic scenario that China continues to ease related procedures, and demand recovers well, Vietnam Airlines expects the number of passengers to fly between the two countries in 2023 will reach about 80% compared to 2019.

However, exploiting the Chinese market with Vietnamese firms still faces many difficulties in the immediate future.

According to the regulations of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the time of landing and taking off (slot), airlines can restore flights as before the pandemic, using historical slots based on the principle of reciprocity. An important condition for Vietnamese airlines to keep a flight slot to China is that the number of flights must be at least equal to 2019. But at this early stage, it is necessary to exploit enough flights of this year’s summer schedule, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, is not easy.

Besides, before Covid-19, the source of visitors between Vietnam and China was mainly tourists. But Vietnam is not in the list of 20 countries where Chinese travel companies can organize tours from February 6th.

Source: VnExpress