The COVID-19 pandemic has severely dragged down revenues of the Vietnam Airlines Corporation (Vietnam Airlines) and the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) in the second quarter of this year.

Vietnam Airlines reported VND6 trillion (US$257.1 million) in second-quarter revenue, down nearly 70% from the previous quarter, as a result of a month-long social distancing order in April and the ongoing suspension of international flights.

The corporation suffered quarterly losses of VND4.03 trillion (US$172.72 million), raising the total losses in the first half of the year to more than VND6.64 trillion.

In mid-July, the State-run firm estimated its revenue would halve to around VND50 trillion and losses would mount to VND13 trillion this year.

Vietnam Airlines is seeking an urgent bailout of VND12 trillion from the government to help it overcome difficulties.

By the end of the second quarter, its asset totalled VND66.69 trillion, a decline of 12.7% from the beginning of the year and its equity shrunk by more than 38% to close to VND11.43 trillion.

Meanwhile, ACV has recorded post-tax losses of over VND365 billion from April to June as its revenues plunged 76.6% from the same period last year to over VND1.04 trillion.

A year earlier, the company enjoyed about VND1.7 trillion in profit.

The second-quarter losses have been offset by VND1.55 trillion in first-quarter post-tax profit before the coronavirus hit the aviation industry. In the first half of 2020, the airport operator posted more than VND1.19 trillion in post-tax profit.

ACV projected that the number of air passengers would reduce by 41% year-on-year to 69.2 million in 2020 while the volume of cargoes going through 21 airports across Vietnam would fall 13% to 1.34 million tonnes.