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Many foreign airlines eye Vietnam

Many foreign airlines eye Vietnam

Wednesday, May 30, 2012, 12:24 GMT+7

Several international airlines are flocking to Vietnam amid the International Air Transport Association estimate that the country would become the world’s third fastest growing market by 2014.

Emirates from the Gulf will launch a Dubai – Ho Chi Minh City daily service on June 4, making the southern Vietnamese economic hub its 124th international destination.

The non-stop flight, with 27 Business Class and 251 Economy Class seats, will depart Dubai at 9:25 am, arriving at Tan Son Nhat Airport at 7:20 pm.

From that day, travelers from Kenya will be able to fly from Nairobi to the Vietnamese city via the UAE carrier’s Dubai hub. Emirates will begin daily flights to Ho Chi Minh City using an Airbus A330-200 aircraft in a two class configuration, which would change to a Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft late this October.

“Emirates will offer tourists and business travelers from Kenya a convenient and comfortable option to access the fascinating and diverse country of Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City is one of the most vibrant places in South East Asia and we are convinced that this will prove to be a highly popular route,” Emirates Regional Manager for East Africa Essa Sulaiman Ahmad said when announcing the new route in Nairobi on May 15.

“Vietnam is full of fascinating history and culture, from the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hoi An to the islands of Halong Bay, to the beaches of Nha Trang and the floating markets of the Mekong River Delta.

Now, thanks to Emirates’ new service, this must-see destination is within even easier reach for Kenyans,” he added.

Vietnamese Deputy Minister for Trade Le Duong Quang, while receiving Kenya’s Ambassador to Vietnam Richard Ekai mid last year, said Vietnam was keen on working closely with Kenya and promised to pursue opportunities for high level trade visits to the African country.

Starting June 4, Emirates SkyCargo of Emirates will also offer belly hold cargo capacity on the passenger flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Dubai.

Etihad Airways, another fast-growing Gulf carrier, has plans to include Vietnam in its new routes in the next 18 months.

Etihad CEO James Hogan said his carrier was looking forward to a “significant” expansion, which would include a new service to Vietnam and flights to South America. Services to Etihad’s first South American destination would begin next year. Additional frequent flights to Asia and Australia are also in the works.

Meanwhile, Air Hong Kong, Jeju Air of South Korea, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Air China Cargo, have registered with the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) to open new routes to Vietnam by the end of the year, bringing the number of foreign airlines operating in the country to 48.

Jeju Air said it would operate daily flights between Seoul and Ho Chi Minh City, but has not announced the launch time.

According to CAAV, Silk Air of Singapore is eyeing a route to Hanoi in addition to its current service to Da Nang on Vietnam’s central coast.

In early May, Finland’s Finnair, a member of international airline alliance One World that provides more than 800 flights daily worldwide, announced its official presence in the Vietnamese market by naming Bien Dong Travel as the general sales agent.

Retteri Kostemaa, South East Asia business director of Finnair, said with 11 destinations, Asia now brought 65 percent of the carrier’s total turnover, and Vietnam was one of its most important markets. He said the airline was considering opening a direct route from Helsinki in the near future. From Vietnam, Finnair would team up with other carriers such as Vietnam Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Jetstar to create transit points connecting with Finnair flights to the Finnish capital.

Thailand’s Bangkok Airways has also just appointed Transviet Promotion Co., Ltd. as its general sales agent for Vietnam.

In late March, America’s United Airlines and Japan’s All Nippon Airways announced the expansion of their trans-Pacific joint venture to enable them to cooperate in terms of airfare and network on the Vietnam-US routes starting in April.

Earlier on March 23, Cebu Pacific of the Philippines launched its Manila-Hanoi services, operating two weekly flights.

Also in March, Saudi Airlines Cargo launched its new freighter flights from Ho Chi Minh City, operating twice a week linking Vietnam with the Middle East and Frankfurt in Germany.

In late April, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved a new aviation transport pact between Vietnam and the UK signed last December to enhance air transport ties between the two countries as well as investment and cooperation relations.

The agreement highlighted a significant increase in flight frequency between the two countries. British and Vietnamese transport officials agreed to bring the number of weekly services between the two countries up from only three flights a week in their first aviation agreement inked in 1994 and revised in 1999 to 14.

Last year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicted that Vietnam would become the third fastest growing market in the world by 2014 after China and Brazil, with a growth grate of 10 percent compared to the current world average of 5 percent.

CAAV said the Vietnamese market posted a 14 percent growth rate last year. It estimates Vietnam would see 34-36 million air passengers a year by 2015, and 52-59 million passengers by 2019. Meanwhile, cargo transport would witness a rapid increase to 850,000-930,000 tons by 2015 and 1.4-1.6 million tons by 2019.

truong nguyen

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