The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) is expecting the country's civil aviation sector to fully recover from the impact of Covid-19 pandemic towards the end of 2023. The recent report titled the global outlook for the aviation industry released by CAAV projected 80 million passengers and 1.44 million tonnes of cargo to be transported by air this year.
The report predicts an increase in 45.4% in passenger traffic and 15% in cargo traffic in 2023 as compared to 2022.
Vietnam saw a full recovery and recorded strong growth in the domestic aviation market in 2022, while its international market is expected to reach the level recorded in 2019 by the end of 2023.
Domestic airports served 9.8 million passengers in January 2023, up 13.8% from the previous month, including 2.3 million international arrivals, a rise of 10%, while the Vietnamese airports handled 112,000 tonnes of cargo in January, up 11.6% from the previous month, as per CAAV data.
The analysts at CAAV have predicted that the international traffic from Vietnam this year will rise triple-fold as compared to 2022, with the figures crossing 34 million-mark.
The report also highlights certain hurdles in achieving this goal like limited aviation infrastructure, fluctuation of fuel prices, human resource shortages and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Along with this capacity infrastructure in Vietnam also needs a revamp as there are very few large airports in Vietnam and they too have limited capacities, the report adds.