Up to February 26, carriers have cut all flights to China. For the flight to Taiwan (China), carriers has cut back 25 percent of flights with capacity of only 172 flights per week, of which Vietnamese flag carriers have cut 34 percent with current capacity of 99 flights per week compared to 151 ones before.
For the air route to Hong Kong (China), the carriers made difficult decisions to cut 69 percent of the flight with only 36 flights per week, of which Vietnam Airlines only exploited four flights a week compared to 47 flights a week before the outbreak of Covid-19.
Recently, air routes to the Republic of Korea have also been tumbled 47 percent with only 309 flights per week, of which Vietnam’s carriers have only exploited 116 flights compared with 196 ones per week before the epidemical outbreak.
Particularly, air routes to Japan have not yet been reduced, remaining 160 flights per week. However, airlines are monitoring the actual situation before making decision to cut the flights in the coming days.
According to Mr. Thang, the total number of aviation passengers significantly reduced from 26.000 passengers to 8.000- 12.000 ones a day.
Amid the unpredicted spread of epidemic, the Civil Aviation Administration forecasted that the total number of aviation passengers could reach 67 million passengers, down 15.4 percent over the same period of last year in case of epidemic is controlled before April.
In case of the epidemic is getting to be more serious and controlled in advance June along with the cancellation of all flights to the Republic of Korea, the total market would reach around 61 million passengers decreasing of 22.5 percent compared to 2019.
Of which, the Vietnam’s carriers would reduce by 41.2 percent of international passengers, 5.5 percent of domestic ones which would trigger the revenue loss of Vietnam Airlines and Jestar Pacific to VND 4,300 billion and VND 732 million, respectively.
The global aviation industry was estimated to have lost 40 percent of its passenger capacity in the first quarter of 2020, equivalent to nearly 20 million passengers, triggering the revenue reduction of US$ 4-5 billion due to Covid-19.
