South Korean full-service carrier Asiana Airlines Inc. is going all-out efforts to fly chartered airplanes for Korean engineers and families heading outside factory sites and home amid the closure of borders across the globe from virus pandemic.

Asiana Airlines said Thursday it flew OZ773, a chartered airplane carrying 29 Hyundai Mipo Dockyard engineers, to Nha Trang, Vietnam on the day after days of efforts to get an approval for the visit by its local operation and the shipbuilder’s Vietnamese unit Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding.

This is the first foreign arrival to Nha Trang, Vietnam since the Vietnamese government closed its borders to foreigners to slow the spread of COVID-19 in March.

Asiana Airlines has been using the hiatus for the public, carrying a total of 6,930 Koreans on chartered planes this month alone. It has helped LG Display engineers visit Van Don and Hanoi of Vietnam and Guangzhou of China, Kia Motors engineers Slovakia and Hyundai Motor engineers Chennai of India, as well as people living outside Korea back to home in New Delhi of India, Sydney of Australia and Clark Field of the Philippines.

“Facing hard times from the global pandemic, Asiana Airlines will keep up efforts to meet the growing demand for chartered flights and air freight services for the public,” said an official at the airliner.

By Pulse

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