The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has permitted Aeroflot, the flag carrier and biggest airline in Russia, to conduct Vietnam-Russia direct flights.
Initially, the CAAV’s approval will allow Aeroflot to fly with one Boeing B777 and eight Airbus A330 aircraft. The CAAV will consider Aeroflot’s applications for one more Airbus A330 and 18 Boeing B777 later. But the name of destinations has not been made public.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia was among Vietnam's biggest foreign arrival markets with 1.47 million travelers and 18,700 tons of cargo in 2019, up 20% and 50% year-on-year, respectively.
However, after the pandemic and due to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Vietnam’s flag carrier Vietnam Airlines halted the Hanoi-Moscow route from March 2022. Vietnam Airlines was the only Vietnamese carrier operating Vietnam-Russia direct flights at the time.
Irkutsk-Hanoi flights operated by Russia’s IrAero are now the only direct ones between the two countries, with a small capacity of 85 passengers per trip.
Vietnam welcomed 11.2 million foreign tourists in the first 11 months of this year, nearly quadruple year-on-year, according to the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism. The figure included 111,719 Russians, up 276.9% year-on-year.
The biggest sources for Vietnam in the period were South Korea with 3.2 million, mainland China with 1.5 million, Taiwan with 758,189, and the U.S. with 658,378.