Get ready for more nonstop flight options to Vietnam… Vietjet Group Vice President Nguyen Thi Thuy Binh says the Vietnamese carrier plans to commence at least one more route between Australia and Hanoi later this year (with possibly more to come) after the launch of a nonstop Melbourne-Hanoi service last weekend.
In an interview with Karryon, Ms Nguyen says Vietjet was firstly eyeing flights from Sydney to the Vietnamese capital.
“We have five destinations from Ho Chi Minh City already – and in the future, we have a plan to extend [the network], connecting more destinations of Vietnam to these five destinations… and the first new destination after Ho Chi Minh City is Hanoi,” she says.
After launching flights between Melbourne and the Vietnamese capital, “the next one will be Hanoi to Sydney”.
“This is the plan for this year. And we hope that we can have good opportunities to open more from Hanoi to another destination as well to connect the two biggest cities of Vietnam with the five biggest cities of Australia.”
While the carrier has no plans to introduce more new ports in Australia (launching six routes in five different states within 11 months would be enough for most airlines), it does intend to increase capacity when the need arises as the low-cost carrier looks to build upon its footprint Down Under – as well as serve bilateral tourism.
To support this, the airline plans to grow its fleet by up to five jets this year and just signed an order for 20 new A330s.
“Whenever we grow the fleet, we will have to plan to expand our network. And we will prioritise the places which have the [largest] populations first… and we will extend more to encourage the people to come to the destination where it [will] fuel inbound tourism and outbound tourism.”
All up, the airline plans to launch 19 new routes in 2024 across Australia, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and even Europe, where it is yet to venture – although the Vietjet VP is not at liberty to divulge its first European destination until it has final approval.
When it comes to who’s utilising its Australian services, Nguyen says nearly one in three passengers (30 per cent) are Australians holidaymakers travelling to Vietnam and occasionally beyond, especially to Thailand, where the Thai Vietjet subsidiary operates.
“I am very happy to see that there are so many Australians travelling to Vietnam to enjoy the holiday… and we expect that we will continue to increase the frequency whenever we have the good support,” she tells Karryon.
Within Vietnam, some passengers are travelling on to holiday hotspots like Da Nang, Nha Trang and Halong Bay.
“We are very happy to see that there are [so] many Australians and their families, and young people. And I saw some [older] couples, but they fly together with family from Australia to Vietnam for a long holiday.”
In a further boost to its Australian services, Vietjet just signed an agreement with Swissport to handle all of its ground operations in Australia moving forward.
“When we open the new route[s], we want to make sure that our service for the customer [is] improved by the best service quality commitment.” And this new deal, underlines that, Nguyen says.
“Service quality is always the first priority when we provide services to the customer.”
And it looks likely to have a growing number of those soon.
In 2023, Vietjet carried 25.3 million passengers including nearly 8 million on international routes.
In April 2023, the low-cost carrier launched in Australia with nonstop journeys between Melbourne and SGN (Tan Son Nhat International Airport), followed later that month by Sydney-SGN flights, and in June, Brisbane-SGN services.
In November 2023, Vietjet flew from Adelaide and Perth to Vietnam for the first time, making the budget airline the first carrier to connect South Australia and Western Australia to the Asian nation.