Coronavirus caused $430 million damage to local airlines

February 12, 2020 | 21:48

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With all flights cancelled between Vietnam and China in February and painstaking efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus epidemic, the performance of Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet, and Bamboo Airways has been heavily dented.

coronavirus caused 430 million damage to local airlines

Local airlines took a painful blow from the coronavirus epidemic

Data published by the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam showed that the local aviation industry has suffered VND10 trillion ($434.78 million) of damage since early February from cancelling all Vietnam-China routes.

The Chinese market currently occupies more than a quarter (26.1 per cent) of local airlines’ international transport output. As a result, the temporary halt in exploiting this market has made the airlines lose a monthly revenue of 400,000 passengers. Moreover, the firms have paid a sizeable compensation for cancelling flights as well as for epidemic-prevention activities.

In the first week of February, the local aviation market recorded about 1.96 million passengers, down 4.5 per cent on-year. It includes the on-year drops of 4 and 28 per cent in local and overseas passengers.

Before the outbreak, about 14 Vietnamese and Chinese airlines exploited these routes. This includes 11 Chinese airlines that operated 240 flights per week, and the three local airlines of Vietnam Airlines, Jetstar Pacific Airlines, and Vietjet Air running 276 flights per week.

In 2019, the total number of passengers flying between Vietnam and China exceeded 7.5 million, including 4.6 million people transported by local airlines.

By Van Anh

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