Vietnamese airlines have rescheduled the resumption of flights to China to late April or even May as they wait for the country to allow its citizens to travel to Vietnam, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.

Airlines had originally planned to resume regular flights to China from March 28. Vietnam’s northern neighbor, however, has not yet allowed its travel agencies to organize outbound tours to certain countries, including Vietnam.

In 2019, prior to Covid-19, four Vietnamese and eleven Chinese airlines operated flights on 32 routes linking five destinations in Vietnam and 14 in China, with weekly frequency at some 240 flights.

Vietnamese airlines carried 4.6 million passengers, or 60 per cent of the market. China was previously the largest source market for Vietnam’s tourism sector.