Airlines and the tourism industry are desperate for international flights to resume.

The Saigon Times reports that the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has proposed a system that would allow international visitors with a COVID-19 vaccine passport and a certificate proving that they tested negative for the coronavirus to enter Vietnam.

A vaccine passport, also known as a green pass, is a paper or digital file that includes personal information, ID cards, and medical data such as COVID-19 test results and vaccination records. The CAAV has recommended using digital vaccine passports in order to avoid the falsification of paper records. This would also allow officials to easily scan passports using QR codes.

China, Hungary and Israel have rolled out different forms of vaccine passports in order to allow vaccinated individuals to travel, though in general this is a largely untested concept in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

VnExpress adds that tourism companies are simultaneously pushing for the resumption of international flights from select markets.

Nguyễn Minh Mẫn, marketing head at the Saigon-based TST Tourist Company, told the news source: "This is a golden time for the tourism industry to prepare their human resources and products to recover and achieve a breakthrough next year."

A number of phased flight resumptions are under discussion, including the possibility of reopening flights between Vietnam and Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in July, while VietJet and Vietnam Airlines both plan to begin offering more outgoing international flights soon. These flights would bring Vietnamese stuck abroad and approved foreign experts back to the country.

While there has been much discussion of vaccine passports and re-opened international flights in recent weeks, at this time there is no set timeline for when Vietnam's borders may open, or when vaccinated individuals may be able to visit the country without undergoing two weeks of quarantine.

[Photo via Express]