CAAV not considering applications for new carriers due to COVID-19

Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) reported it will not consider applications for new carriers and will instead focus on the recovery of the sector in response to COVID-19 (Reuters, 13-May-2020). CAAV stated: "The government now has to focus on resuming domestic and international routes and supporting existing airlines, which have been hit hard by the outbreak". It added: "The establishment of new airline will resume when the pandemic passes". Vietnam is expecting arrivals to decline by 43% year-on-year in 2020. The government suspended all international and domestic services in Mar-2020 and Apr-2020 in an effort to contain the spread of the outbreak.