No short cuts for Myanmar’s airlines
By TTR WEEKLY -
July 13, 2020

YANGON, 13 July 2020: Myanmar’s airports might not open to international commercial flights until October according to National Tourism Development Central Committee’s vice-president Henry Van Thio.

Based on a report in the Irrawaddy, an online news channel, the travel industry will have to wait until October at the earliest to start recovery.

But there no guarantee that even if the country opens its skies to international flights that there will be any takers other than airlines offering repatriation flights.

Domestic flights are operating but are restricted to Myanmar citizens and foreign residents registered in the country. There are foreign tourists stranded in the country since the end of March still waiting for repatriation flights home. Also, hundreds of Myanmar citizens are still overseas waiting for an opportunity to return home.

The Myanmar government said that when it reopens commercial flights they will be restricted to routes serving neighbouring cities in the ASEAN region and later countries across Asia.

Initially, officials hoped that “travel bubbles” or corridors could be set up with Thailand and Vietnam to resume direct flights with passengers who would be exempt from the 14-day quarantine rules, but that is now unlikely.
https://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2020/07/ ... -airlines/

July 17, 2020
Vietnam weighs regular flights to Cambodia in August
The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has proposed that weekly flights between the Southeast Asian country and Cambodia, China, Japan, South Korea, Laos, and another country to be operated from August.

The proposal came after the prime minister recently agreed to resume commercial flights to and from China after months of closure due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

According to the CAAV, foreign airlines such as Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines have been operating international flights to and from Vietnam since June.

Vietnam Airlines has also maintained a regular flight schedule between the country and South Korea.

Since July, Emirates Airlines, Qatar Airways, China Airlines, Eva Airways, Asiana Airlines, and Korean Air have operated regular flights to and from Vietnam.

However, these were either cargo or passenger flights for special groups, including Vietnamese citizens stranded abroad, diplomats, and experts.

The CAAV and Ministry of Transport will work with their counterparts in China, Japan, South Korea, Laos, and Cambodia to discuss in detail the conditions for the transport of passengers between Vietnam and these destinations.

The first of such regular flights are expected to take off in August.

If these flights are operated on a weekly basis, approximately 2,500 to 3,000 passengers will be entering Vietnam every week, aside from Vietnamese citizens repatriated on special services and experts brought to the country on charter flights.
During the first phase, the CAAV plans to organize regular flights along such routes as Guangzhou-Da Nang, Tokyo-Hanoi, Seoul-Hanoi, Vientiane-Quang Ninh, and Phnom Penh-Can Tho.

Only national carrier Vietnam Airlines will be permitted to run these flights.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50745604/v ... in-august/

A new coronavirus case in Vietnam may put the brakes on plans to reopen the country to tourists.

Vietnam back on coronavirus alert after first local infection in 3 months
July 25, 2020
published at 12:51 PMReuters

HANOI - Vietnam was back on high alert for the novel coronavirus on Saturday (July 25) after medical officials in the central city of Danang detected its first locally transmitted case for three months.

Thanks to strict quarantine measures and an aggressive and widespread testing programme, Vietnam has kept its virus total to an impressively low 415 cases and had reported no locally transmitted infections for 100 days.

Vietnam has reported no deaths from the virus.

But on Friday, the health ministry said a 57-year-old man from Danang, a tourist hot spot, had tested positive, prompting the isolation of 50 people he came in contact with.

The ministry said 103 people connected to the patient were tested for the virus but all returned negative results.

The government said on Saturday a new test had confirmed the man's infection, bringing the total number of cases in Vietnam to 416.

It did not say how the man contracted the virus but that he had not left Danang for nearly a month. He was initially diagnosed with pneumonia.

The case comes at a time when Vietnam was about to resume international commercial flights and as domestic tourism is surging.
https://www.asiaone.com/asia/vietnam-ba ... n-3-months

aggro wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 5:21 pm

Dunderhead wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 7:47 pm That is the intent, no more mass tourism anywhere ever again. In future it will be expensive and a huge hassle to travel. Most people will be lucky to make an overseas trip once or twice a decade.

Mass tourism only really existed for a few decades for most people in most of the world. The 747 didn't even enter service until 1970.

Throughout human history, travel has mainly been the reserve of the well to do. Poor people historically only traveled to migrate. For much of the world that never changed.

that's right - the new backpacker, budget traveller will be lucky to do a coach tour in their own country!

God'sGift wrote: ↑Sun Aug 16, 2020 2:43 pm

aggro wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 5:21 pm

Dunderhead wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 7:47 pm That is the intent, no more mass tourism anywhere ever again. In future it will be expensive and a huge hassle to travel. Most people will be lucky to make an overseas trip once or twice a decade.

Mass tourism only really existed for a few decades for most people in most of the world. The 747 didn't even enter service until 1970.

Throughout human history, travel has mainly been the reserve of the well to do. Poor people historically only traveled to migrate. For much of the world that never changed.

that's right - the new backpacker, budget traveller will be lucky to do a coach tour in their own country!

In some countries there is more to see than others. My Cambodian wife often complains that everything in Cambodia looks pretty much the same, and travel times are ridiculous per mile, so she'd rather stay home if we can't go abroad. I can't say that I disagree. Spending 8-10 hours to go 300 miles is not my idea of a good time.