Vietnam Airlines repatriates 240 nationals from US due to COVID-19

Vietnam Airlines’ Boeing 787- Dreamliner touched down at Cam Ranh International Airport early on June 25, bringing back 240 Vietnamese citizens left stranded in the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Passengers wear protective gear to board the plane before departure.(Photo: ***************)

This is the first direct and round-trip flight Vietnam Airlines has conducted between Vietnam and the US this year. Boeing 787- Dreamliner left Hanoi on June 22 for Washington DC with a stopover in Alaska before returning back to Hanoi.

All crew members and passengers had their body temperature checked before boarding the aircraft. They were required to wear personal protective gear and limit contact during the trip and were quarantined as soon as they returned to Vietnam.

The round-trip flight is one of the 12 flights the national flag carrier has been licensed by the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), to repatriate Vietnamese citizens in the US this year, starting from June.

Vietnam Airlines is the first and only Vietnamese airline that has been licensed by this US transportation agency to conduct repatriation flights between the two countries.