Vietnam Airlines to operate two direct flights to US amid pandemic chaos
Vietnam Airlines will operate two commercial flights from Hanoi to the U.S. in May, exclusively for U.S. nationals.
One would leave at 9:45 a.m. on May 2 and arrive in San Francisco at 10:00 a.m. local time, and the other will depart from Hanoi at 6:20 a.m. on May 10 and land in Washington, D.C., at 1:00 p.m. local time, the U.S. embassy announced.
The fare would depend on the number of passengers and could be higher than a normal one-way ticket, it said, calling for citizens who need departure assistance to register with the embassy by Tuesday afternoon.
Vietnam has suspended all international flights as a containment measure against Covid-19 and thousands of foreigners are stuck in the country.
Some special flights have been operated in recent weeks to repatriate Europeans and citizens of several Southeast Asian countries.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued a Category 1 rating to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam under its International Aviation Safety Assessment program in 2019, meaning it met safety standards to operate flights to the U.S.
Vietnam has emerged as a favorite travel destination for Americans.
The United States Tour Operators Association had said Vietnam was one of the hottest destinations for U.S. travelers in 2019, with 746,171 of them visiting, an increase of 10.8 percent from 2018.