Hanoi to temporarily ground planes Dec 31 due Y2K
HANOI -
National carrier Vietnam Airlines will
ground all flights just before the start
of the year 2000 to ensure there are
no complications from the millennium
bug, official media reported on
Tuesday.
The Vietnam News daily said flights
would be allowed to take off after
the new year had begun.
An official at Vietnam Airlines said
he could not give details of flights
likely to be affected because the
carrier had yet to work out the
schedule for that period. He gave no
more details.
The carrier operates a small fleet by
world standards.
Vietnam Airlines has spent $2 million
to make the company's computers
millennium compliant, official media
has reported.
Some computer systems are
expected to default or malfunction
when the year 2000 becomes a
reality since they were programmed
to read only the last two digits of a
date, rendering the double ``00'' in
2000 as 1900.
Hanoi has already said the year 2000
computer bug problem posed a
danger to key sectors such as
national defence and aviation but that
the overall impact should not be too
great.
Earlier this year the government said
$50 million would be needed to
make systems millennium-compliant
in a country where computer use is
not widespread.
Reuters - June 21, 1999.
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