Vietnam Airlines resumes China services

There will be one weekly flight each from Ho Chi Minh City to Guangzhou and Shanghai and from Hanoi to Shanghai.

Bamboo Airways on Tuesday launched its first service to China between Hanoi and Tianjin City.

The resumption of air services between the two countries comes as Chinese authorities gradually ease Covid requirements after sticking to their ‘zero-Covid’ policy for long.

China’s national health authority said Wednesday that asymptomatic Covid-19 cases and people with mild symptoms could quarantine at home, a sign that China is preparing to live with the disease.

China used to be Vietnam’s biggest tourism market until the pandemic intervened, with nearly 4.8 million Chinese visiting in 2019.

Some 36,000 Vietnamese nationals live in China.

In the absence of Chinese tourists, Vietnam only received 2.95 million foreign visitors in the first 11 months of this year, or just more than half the full-year target of five million.

The country opened its borders in March.