Deputy PM asks for stronger efforts to ensure aviation security, safety

Addressing a meeting of the committee on February 24 to review its operation in 2021 and launch tasks for 2022, Deputy PM Minh underlined that in 2022, the Government is focusing on the implementation of socio-economic recovery programme, so that aviation activities will rise strongly due to high traveling demand. This means the task of ensuring aviation security and safety will be tougher in the time to come, he said.

He asked the Ministry of Transport to continue to review and complete institutions along with making adjustments and supplementations to the Aviation Law to suit the new situation, while focusing on enhancing the capacity of ensuring aviation security and safety in the new situation.

The Deputy PM also agreed with the Ministry of Transport’s proposal to form an aviation security company in line with legal regulations.

Meanwhile, he requested ministries, sectors and localities to pay greater attention to human resources training for aviation security activities, while building plans to handle unmanned aircraft, managing and supervising the establishment of no-fly zones, and implementing a project to set up police stations at airports

According to Deputy Transport Minister Le Anh Tuan, in 2021, Vietnamese airports served 157,000 inbound and outbound flights, down 38.8 percent year on year, along with 98,000 transit flights with a total 28.1 million passengers, including 320,000 foreigners, a year-on-year drop of 95.5 percent due to impacts of COVID-19.

The airlines carried 14 million passengers, down 51.7 percent year on year, including 144,000 foreigners.

In the year, 414 cases of aviation security violations were detected, down 181 cases compared to 2020. They were settled in a timely manner thanks to close coordination among aviation security forces, thus causing no considerable impacts to airlines.

Last year, civil aviation agencies handed over 195 law violation cases, including 51 criminal cases to the police. The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam and the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation received 223 notifications from the Defence Ministry regarding defence as well as aviation security and safety.

Tuan said that the aviation sector showed strong performance in implementing COVID-19 prevention and control measures, adding that no serious aviation incidents were recorded.