The national flag carrier said flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Sydney would depart every Thursday and Sunday starting July 15, and return flights on Tuesday and Saturday.

Flight from HCMC to Melbourne would depart every Tuesday from July 20 and the return flights every Thursday.

Flights from Hanoi to Frankfurt are scheduled to depart July 25 and 28 and August 21 while two flights from Hanoi to London will commence on Aug. 13 and Sept. 2. Return flights from Frankfurt are scheduled on July 26 and 29 and August 22, and from London on August 14 and Sept. 3.

The national flag carrier stated flights from Hanoi to Tokyo would depart every Wednesday and Saturday starting July 17. From Aug. 1, it would resume flights from HCMC to Bangkok every Wednesday and from Tokyo to HCMC every Thursday.

On return trips, the carrier would only carry Vietnamese repatriates or foreign experts with permission to enter the country. Vietnam is yet to open its doors to foreign tourists.

A representative of the carrier said resumption of these international routes are meant to meet growing travel demand among Vietnamese citizens wishing to study and work abroad as well as stranded foreigners longing to return home.

Vietnam closed its borders and canceled all international flights in March last year, and has since allowed only certain categories of visitors with strict Covid-19 quarantine requirements. The quarantine period was increased to 21 days recently as the country battles a more widespread outbreak with new strains of the novel coronavirus.

However, Vietnam is now working on a vaccine passport scheme that would allow fully vaccinated entrants to enter certain regions like Quang Ninh and Phu Quoc with the centralized quarantine period shortened to seven days.

Nguyen Quy