Vietnam now has four airports with the Airports Council International’s health 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.

The ACI evaluates cleaning and disinfection procedures, physical distancing, staff protection, physical layout, passenger communications, and passenger facilities to award the certificate, which is valid for 12 months.

Since the pandemic broke out last January, Tan Son Nhat, the country's largest airport, adopted a number of preventive measures such as requiring all passengers to wear masks and make health declarations, installing a thermal sensor to check passengers' temperature and disinfecting all airplanes.

Since March, when the government imposed flight bans and travel restrictions, Tan Son Nhat has been receiving a large number of Vietnamese returning home from abroad.

There have been no inbound international flights to Cam Ranh, one of Vietnam's busiest airports, since March except for 128 repatriation flights bringing back over 10,000 Vietnamese nationals.

Luis Felipe de Oliveira, general director of ACI World, a non-profit organization representing the world's airports, said 2020 was a particularly difficult year for the aviation industry due to the pandemic.

As of December 235 airports around the world have got the accreditation, including those in Singapore, Hong Kong and Siem Reap.