As Taiwan and other nations begin to ease COVID-19 prevention measures for international travel, some airlines have said they plan to gradually resume services from Taiwan.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), on Wednesday said that flights between Taiwan and Vietnam would soon resume, as the Southeast Asian nation plans to allow entry to Taiwanese, as well as travelers from Japan, South Korea and Cambodia.
The CECC on Wednesday next week would announce regulations governing the arrival of business travelers, he said, adding that the center would still ask people to observe the 14-day quarantine requirement if they are planning a long stay.
Photo courtesy of StarLux Airlines
The center also said that it is in discussions with Taoyuan International Airport Corp about the possibility of separating transit passengers from those entering the nation, adding that a proposal would be deliberated at a meeting this week.
China Airlines said that it is planning two daily flights to Hanoi and another two to Ho Chi Minh City starting next month, adding that the plan is subject to change.
EVA Air still has passenger flights to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, but it said it might consider increasing the number of flights, depending on the outcome of negotiations between the nations.
Vietnam Airlines said that it is planning to have four weekly flights from Taipei to Ho Chi Minh City and three weekly flights from Taipei to Hanoi starting next month, and it would make similar arrangements for flights departing from Kaohsiung.
Vietnamese budget carrier VietJet Air said that it plans to have three weekly flights from Taipei to Hanoi and to Ho Chi Minh City starting next month, whereas Bamboo Airways said it would dispatch three weekly flights from Taipei to Hanoi and three from Kaohsiung to Hanoi.
StarLux Airlines said that next month it would start weekly flights between Taipei and Macau on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, but it is still suspending flights to Da Nang, Vietnam.
The carrier yesterday was to start service to Penang, Malaysia, but said it was waiting for the Malaysian government to publish new disease prevention measures before deciding when to make flights available.
StarLux is postponing flights to Cebu City, the Philippines, to Oct. 25, it said.
Dubai-based Emirates airline said that on Wednesday next week it would resume services between Taipei and Dubai, and passengers who need to transit through Dubai to Bahrain and 14 other cities in its network can also book their tickets on its Web site, but passengers must check quarantine requirements before making reservations.
Singapore Changi Airport yesterday began accepting transit passengers from Singapore Airlines and two subsidiaries — SilkAir and Scoot — departing from selected cities in Australia and New Zealand, and traveling to any destination in the airline’s group network.
Scoot’s agent in Taiwan said that it has yet to receive instructions for the resumption of services between Taipei and Singapore.
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