Tiếng Việt
普通话
Deputy Minister Le Anh Tuan told the Vietnam News Agency on Sunday that South Korean nationals who have booked or bought tickets to Vietnam have canceled their plans. As a result, flights from Vietnam are now only carrying Korean passengers back to their country.
Due to the lack of passengers, Tuan noted, airlines have suspended flights from Vietnam to Daegu, South Korea’s fourth-largest city and also the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the Northeast Asian country.
He said the Ministry of Transport is keeping a close eye on the outbreak in Daegu and is seeking guidance from Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) in a statement on February 21 rejected rumors that flights between Vietnam and South Korea and those between Vietnam and Japan had been suspended.
Numerous Vietnam-S.Korea flights suspended
CAAV told Tuoi Tre newspaper on Sunday that four local airlines – Vietnam Airlines, Jetstar Pacific, Vietjet Air and Bamboo Airways – operate a total of 14 air routes between Vietnam and South Korea with a combined 182 weekly flights.
Meanwhile, eight South Korean carriers have a total of 10 routes from Busan, Incheon, Daegu and Jeonnam to major Vietnamese cities, with 381 weekly flights.
In Daegu, Vietjet Air operates one service to and from Danang City, at seven flights per week, while the South Korean low-cost airline T’way Air runs three services to and from the Vietnamese central coastal city of Danang, Cam Ranh City in southern Khanh Hoa Province and the Vietnamese capital city of Hanoi, at 21 flights per week.
Between February 16 and 22, Vietjet Air carried 1,053 passengers between Danang and Daegu. The budget carrier expects to halt this service from February 25 to March 28.
T’way Air transported a total of 894 passengers from Vietnam to the Northeast Asian country and vice versa. Given the lack of passengers, it has cancelled flights from Daegu to Hanoi, Danang and Nha Trang until March 28.
Bamboo Airways said on Monday that its flights between Vietnamese cities Danang and Nha Trang and Korea’s Incheon International Airport will stop starting February 26 over coronavirus concerns.
The private carrier will resume flights when the epidemic is under control. “Our plan to open a new route from Hanoi to Incheon this June may have to be suspended, too,” a spokeswoman told Reuters by telephone.
Vietnam Airlines also decided to cancel flights between the Hanoi-based Noi Bai International Airport and Incheon until March 26.
South Korea was Vietnam’s second-largest tourism market behind China, with 4.3 million visitors in 2019, up 23% from a year earlier.