All Vietnamese air crew must have two vaccinations before flying after end of the month

Hanoi (VNA) – Only pilots and flight attendants who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with two jabs are eligible to be onboard starting September 1.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) informed the policy in its directive on mandatory measures for flight safety amid COVID-19, which was issued on July 14 and freshly amended to intensify the works in the time to come.

The directive requires flight operators to strictly adhere to COVID-19 preventive rules, otherwise there will be delays as staff have to be rotated.

Vaccination must be prioritised to frontline workers, including pilots, flight attendants, and technical engineers, who are considered high-risk because of regular contact with passengers, it said.

As part of the directive, the Director of the CAAV also asked airlines to evaluate their compliance with regulations on maintaining the aircraft control ability and skills as prescribed in the code of civil aviation safety regulations.

Several Airlines are starting to promote a new perk to bring passengers back nearly a year after the pandemic started: vaccinated pilots and flight attendants.

On Wednesday, Etihad Airways claimed it was “the first airline in the world with 100% vaccinated crew on board.”

Not to be outdone, on Thursday Singapore Airlines Group said its three carriers — Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Scoot would be among the first airlines in the world to operate flights with all pilots and cabin crew vaccinated.

Now we can soon add Vietnam’s airlines to the list as well.