The minister made the request during a meeting of the Ministryof Transport on May 6, as airlines prepare to restart domestic routes followingthe easing of social distancing measures designed to prevent and control theCOVID-19 pandemic.  CAAV Director Dinh Viet Thang said that the air transportsector is recovering quickly after the regulations have been gradually eased. Thang said in the past six days alone, including four publicholidays, domestic airlines carried 230,000 passengers, reaching an average of39,000 passengers per day, equivalent to 38 percent of the figure lastyear. “It is likely that the domestic aviation market will recoverby the middle of next year. Regarding the international market, it may recoverby the end of 2021,” Thang said. Domestic airlines carried about 1.231 millionpassengers and 105 million tonnes of goods in the first four months of thisyear, down 27.5 percent and 7.2 percent year-on-year, respectively. Tran Bao Ngoc, Director of the Transport Ministry’sDepartment of Transport, said the aviation sector is the most affected of thefive transport sectors, including railway and waterway. He said Vietnamese airlines have stopped operating almost alldomestic and international routes, running only a few flights to transportpassengers from Việt Nam to several international destinations, cargo flightsand three routes connecting Hanoi, Da Nang and HCM City with a minimumfrequency to serve the essential needs of air transport. Since April 1, the number of passengers travelling by air isonly by 1-2 percent compared to the time before the pandemic, Ngoc said. Vietnam Airlines Group is one of the most affectedbusinesses. In the first quarter of this year, the firm’s consolidated revenuedecreased by about 26 per cent. The revenue and profit of the Airports Corporation of Vietnam(ACV) decreased by 24 percent, while the flight control output and revenue ofthe Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) decreased by 60 percentyear-on-year. Air transport is taking place in a worse situation thanexpected, with an estimated volume of about 43 million passengers carried in2020, down 46 percent year-on-year, Ngoc said./.