The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam has granted approval to low-cost carrier Vietjet Air to conduct direct flights between Hanoi and the Indian capital city of New Delhi.

The approval was given based on a previous air transport agreement between the Vietnamese and Indian governments.

Vietjet already operates four flights weekly between Ho Chi Minh City and New Delhi.

The airline has not announced the official takeoff date of its first Hanoi-New Delhi flight.

The Vietnamese budget carrier said at the launch of the Ho Chi Minh City-New Delhi route in March 2018 that offering services between Vietnamese and Indian cities serves a growing demand for air travel.

Vietnam and India marked the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties and the 10th anniversary of strategic partnership last year.

New Delhi is the capital city of India. The city itself has a population of roughly 260,000 but the much larger metro area has a population that exceeds 26 million as of 2019.

Vietjet currently operates around 400 flights daily on 113 domestic and international routes covering destinations across Vietnam, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, mainland China, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia.

It is the second-largest airline in Southeast Asia, behind only Singapore Airlines, in terms of market capitalization with the total market value of its shares estimated at US$3 billion as of November 2018, according to Nikkei.

Vietjet transported 44 percent of Vietnam’s total air passengers in the first half of 2019, according to a CAAV report.

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