Phu Quoc Airport gets global Covid health accreditation, set for tourism reopening

Phu Quoc Airport in Kien Giang Province has received international health accreditation for its safety measures against Covid-19 as it prepares to welcome back foreign tourists next month.

It has become the fifth airport in Vietnam to receive the Airports Council International’s accreditation, a program that supports airports around the world with introducing preventive hygiene, health and safety measures against the pandemic, the Airports Corporation of Vietnam said.

Da Nang, Noi Bai, Tan Son Nhat, and Cam Ranh airports, the country's busiest, received it earlier.

The ACI evaluates cleaning and disinfection procedures, physical distancing, staff protection, physical layout, passenger communication, and passenger facilities for the certification, which has a validity of 12 months.

Since the pandemic broke out in January 2020 Phu Quoc Airport has adopted a number of preventive measures such as requiring all passengers to wear masks, installing a thermal sensor to check their temperature and disinfecting all airplanes.

All its staff are fully vaccinated.

The airport, which has a capacity of seven million passengers a year, received 3.7 million in 2019.

Phu Quoc got the greenlight from the government to allow fully immunized tourists from Europe, the U.S., Northeast Asia, Australia, and the Middle East under a two-phase vaccine passport trial program scheduled to start on November 20.

Nguyen Minh Dong, director of the airport, told Lao Dong newspaper some airlines want to resume commercial flights to Phu Quoc from South Korea (Incheon), Japan (Narita), Singapore, and Thailand (Bangkok) in the next two months.

Vietnam's largest island gained global fame after the government allowed 30-day visa-free entry starting in 2014.

In 2019 it received over five million visitors, including 541,600 foreigners.