Hanoi (VNA) - China’s moves toresume international tourism from January 8 next year are believed to be apositive sign for aviation activities between Vietnam and China.

Nguyen Thanh Son, Vice President of Vietjet,said: “After China lifts pandemic prevention restrictions and the tourist visapolicy between the two countries is resumed, Vietjet will prioritise reopeningair routes to China, firstly the flights from major economic and tourism hubsof Vietnam to populous cities of China, in 2023. Our goal is to completelyrestore the network of flights to China to pre-pandemic levels in the first sixmonths of 2023, thereby retaining the position of the leading operator ofcommercial flights between the two countries and continuing to raise the flightnumber by 20-30% from the pre-pandemic period to nearly 100 flights per day by theend of 2023.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietjet was theleading airline in terms of the number of routes between Vietnam and China, accountingfor about 50% of the total between the two countries. As of the start of 2020,it had connected six cities of Vietnam (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, NhaTrang, Da Lat, and Phu Quoc) with over 50 provinces/cities of China such asShanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Tianjin, Wuhan, Kunming, and Xi’an,with nearly 80 flights per day at its peak.

Vietjet has been quickly resuming air routeslinking Vietnam with Chinese destinations since October 2022, with those fromHo Chi Minh City to Hangzhou and Chengdu being the first. At present, it isoperating five air routes from HCM City to Hangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen,Shanghai, and Wuhan.

China has just reopened its door after manyyears while the tourist visa between the two countries has yet to be resumed,so the number of visitors remains limited. Vietnam and China have just grantedvisas for diplomatic, labour, commercial, and studying purposes.

To meet the demand for safe and qualityinternational travel after the pandemic, Vietjet recently put into usewide-body aircraft A330, aside from the existing modern A321 and A320 fleet,along with the SkyBoss Business ticket class that features many exclusiveprivileges and priorities, including private cabins and a diverse menu with hotand fresh meals and a wide range of beverages. Travel and healthcare products,services, and conveniences on Vietjet aircraft are also being introduced widelyto passengers on the carrier’s flights to India, Japan, the Republic of Korea,Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan (China), etc./.