Vietnam has taken further steps toward joining an open sky market of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with an aim at supporting strong trade and tourism growth and regional economic integration.
Vo Huy Cuong, director of Air Transport Department at the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, said Vietnam had agreed to liberalize cargo and passenger services markets with many members of the ASEAN bloc, including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.
Cuong said Vietnam was now in the process of considering unlimited flights from Vietnam to destinations in other ASEAN nations after the country agreed cargo liberalization within the region as part of a regional open sky agreement.
“We are ready for the ASEAN open sky market,” Cuong said and added that Vietnam was preparing for necessary steps and following a roadmap to enter such a regional market by 2015 as scheduled.
However, he emphasized the country’s entry would depend on moves of other member countries and that the domestic traffic right would continue to be for Vietnamese airlines not for foreign airlines.
Also regarding regional aviation cooperation, Vietnam signed a new bilateral air transport pact with the Philippines on providing more seats between these two countries.
The new deal, which was inked last week, allows 2,650 seats on the weekly flights between HCMC and Manila compared to around 2,000 seats stated in the old pact the two countries struck in 2003. “The new seats are almost the same to the number currently provided by Philippine airlines,” Cuong told the Daily on Tuesday.
Philippines Airlines and Cebu Pacific now perform daily flights between Vietnam’s economic hub of HCMC and Manila - the capital of the second most populous nation in ASEAN after Indonesia. None of Vietnamese airlines has scheduled service to the Philippines.
Cebu Pacific launched services between Hanoi and Manila in 2008 but had to suspend this route due to low seating capacity in order to focus on the HCMC-Manila direction. But, the new air transport pact grants a number of seats for the Hanoi-Manila route as outlined in a total package of 6,000 seats per week for the flights from HCMC and Hanoi to Manila and Cebu and vice versa.
Currently, 46 foreign airlines conduct flights on 54 international routes to and from Vietnam, and four local airlines flew on 40 domestic routes covering 20 airports.
The country’s aviation market saw the number of passengers up by 15% year-on-year to more than 16 million and cargo reach 300,000 tons in the first eight months of this year.
CAAV general director Pham Quy Tieu reported 105 million passengers and 2.2 million tons of cargo in the past five years, with average annual growth of 15% and 12% respectively. He said local carriers were expected to transport 71.3 million passengers and 940,000 tons of cargo in the 2006-11 period.
Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh approved a Memorandum of Understanding on ASEAN Air Services Engagement with Dialogue Partners. The Ministry of Transport was told to work with relevant agencies to implement the MoU, which was signed at the 16th ASEAN Transport Ministers Meeting in Brunei in November last year.
SGT
Cuong said Vietnam was now in the process of considering unlimited flights from Vietnam to destinations in other ASEAN nations after the country agreed cargo liberalization within the region as part of a regional open sky agreement.
“We are ready for the ASEAN open sky market,” Cuong said and added that Vietnam was preparing for necessary steps and following a roadmap to enter such a regional market by 2015 as scheduled.
However, he emphasized the country’s entry would depend on moves of other member countries and that the domestic traffic right would continue to be for Vietnamese airlines not for foreign airlines.
Also regarding regional aviation cooperation, Vietnam signed a new bilateral air transport pact with the Philippines on providing more seats between these two countries.
The new deal, which was inked last week, allows 2,650 seats on the weekly flights between HCMC and Manila compared to around 2,000 seats stated in the old pact the two countries struck in 2003. “The new seats are almost the same to the number currently provided by Philippine airlines,” Cuong told the Daily on Tuesday.
Philippines Airlines and Cebu Pacific now perform daily flights between Vietnam’s economic hub of HCMC and Manila - the capital of the second most populous nation in ASEAN after Indonesia. None of Vietnamese airlines has scheduled service to the Philippines.
Cebu Pacific launched services between Hanoi and Manila in 2008 but had to suspend this route due to low seating capacity in order to focus on the HCMC-Manila direction. But, the new air transport pact grants a number of seats for the Hanoi-Manila route as outlined in a total package of 6,000 seats per week for the flights from HCMC and Hanoi to Manila and Cebu and vice versa.
Currently, 46 foreign airlines conduct flights on 54 international routes to and from Vietnam, and four local airlines flew on 40 domestic routes covering 20 airports.
The country’s aviation market saw the number of passengers up by 15% year-on-year to more than 16 million and cargo reach 300,000 tons in the first eight months of this year.
CAAV general director Pham Quy Tieu reported 105 million passengers and 2.2 million tons of cargo in the past five years, with average annual growth of 15% and 12% respectively. He said local carriers were expected to transport 71.3 million passengers and 940,000 tons of cargo in the 2006-11 period.
Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh approved a Memorandum of Understanding on ASEAN Air Services Engagement with Dialogue Partners. The Ministry of Transport was told to work with relevant agencies to implement the MoU, which was signed at the 16th ASEAN Transport Ministers Meeting in Brunei in November last year.
SGT
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