Hanoi (VNA) – Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The chaired a conferenceon February 27 to seek measures to counter difficulties caused by the COVID-19epidemic.

Atthe conference, the minister underlined the strong impacts of COVID-19 on thetransport sector. The sudden suspension of flights to mainland China has putgreat pressure on airlines. Railway, land and waterway transport are alsoaffected.

Director General of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) – Dinh Viet Thang said the aviation market began to plummet at the end of January.

As of February 26, Vietnameseairlines had stopped all flights to China, cut 34 percent of flights to Taiwan(China) and 92 percent of flights to Hong Kong (China). While all 160 flightsto Japan have been maintained so far, carriers are assessing the epidemicsituation with a high possibility of having to reduce services in the comingperiod. The number of flights to the Republic of Korea has also been reduced by41 percent.

According to Thang, in the bestscenario with the epidemic contained before April, Vietnam’s airlines wouldtransport 48 million passengers, down 9.2 percent year on year.

In theworse scenario with the epidemic put under control before June, and all flightsto the RoK suspended, Vietnamese carriers would transport 45.7 millionpassengers, down 17 percent.

Tosupport domestic carriers in coping with negative effects of COVID-19, the CAAVrecommended that the Ministry of Transport ask the Government to provide subsidyfor aviation service fees for local airlines from March 1 to May 31 this year.

It alsosuggested creating conditions for aviation service suppliers to reduce fees forairlines and other service users.

Inaddition, the CAAV proposed the exemption of import tariff and environmentaltax for aviation fuel for three months, the delay of tax and budgetcontributions for airlines, and easing visa policies for foreign visitors.

Directorof the Transport Department Tran Bao Ngoc reported on the problems faced byland, railway and waterway transport.

The numberof passengers in land transport in February went down by 16.3 percent from theprevious month, while that of railway plunged 45 percent from January and 47.4percent from one year ago.

Domesticmaritime firms have also reported a 30 percent reduction in cargo volumecompared to January and 17.8 percent in number of passengers.

Concludingthe conference, Minister The required relevant agencies to keep updated on the transportsector’s losses caused by impacts of the COVID-19 and swiftly consider thesuggested measures.

He askedairlines to consider opening new routes to densely-populated areas not affectedby the epidemic./.