Da Nang welcomes first int'l flights as Viet Nam fully revises tourism

Specifically, a Singapore Airlines flight departing from Singapore with 160 passengers on board landed in the Da Nang international airport at 11:05 am, marking the resumption of direct flights between Singapore and Da Nang.

The Singaporean flag carrier is now operating one flight per day on the air route.

Viet Nam and Singapore have reached a bilateral agreement for mutual recognition of their COVID-19 vaccine passports last month on the occasion of President Nguyen Xuan Phuc's visit to Singapore.

From March 16, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) decided to launch vaccinated travel lane (VTLs) for tourists from Viet Nam.

With the launch of the VTL from Viet Nam, Singapore will restore two-way quarantine-free travel with Viet Nam, which was a popular destination for many Singaporeans.

Meanwhile, the other flight by Thai Vietjet carrying 150 passengers from Bangkok arrived in the central tourist hub at 12:30 am.

Thai Vietjet, an associate company of Vietnamese airline VietJet Air, is now running three flights per week, on every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

In 2019, before the outbreak of COVID-19, Da Nang airport received over 98,000 flights, with over 7.1 million international visitors and 8.4 million domestic travelers.

Tran Phuoc Son, Vice Chairman of the Da Nang municipal People's Committee said the central city recorded an average 22 percent growth of international tourism.

The city planned to resume all air routes to the pre-pandemic levels, Tran added.

Viet Nam closed borders to international tourists from March 22, 2020 due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thanks to quick and drastic realization of the vaccination strategy, the Government decided to switch away from zero COVID to safe and effective adaptation to the pandemic from October last year.

The Government decided to revise international tourism as part of its efforts to boost post-pandemic recovery from March 2022./.