TravTalk India Online Magazine
With 21 flights per week between India and Vietnam, Vietnam Airlines touches 100% capacity of the bilateral agreement. With India ranking among the top five biggest international markets for the airline, its plan is to further increase capacity and frequency to and from India. With support from the travel trade and Aeroprime Group in India, this will not be a difficult task.
Hazel Jain
SkyTeam member Vietnam Airlines will introduce two new nonstop routes from Hanoi to Bengaluru and Hyderabad from May 1, operated by its two-class Airbus A321 aircraft with recliner seats in business class. The airline says the new routes reflect its ongoing commitment to offering convenient travel options and strengthening cultural and economic ties between Vietnam and India.
Underlining importance of the Mumbai market, Abhishek Goyal, Executive Director & CEO, Aeroprime Group, says, “Mumbai is a key market for us. We are launching our wide-body operations from Mumbai from 1 May. So, our Mumbai-Hanoi flight, which operates four times a week, will be operated by wide-body aircraft, which will be the Airbus 350 or Boeing 787 offering premium onboard services and flight entertainment, curated Indian meals, flatbed, and business class in all our new flights between Mumbai and Hanoi.”
In fact, this year the airline is expanding its capacity from India by more than 50 per cent year-on-year. “We are adding two more destinations from India. This expansion will be in South India, in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Again, we are launching those from May 2025, so Bengaluru will operate four times in a week to Hanoi and Hyderabad will operate three times a week to Hanoi. Initially, we will operate the A321 aircraft with economy and business class, but eventually looking at the demand, we will be able to increase our capacity and upgrade the aircraft,” Goyal says.
From May 2025, the airline will have daily flights from Delhi, which operates with wide-body aircraft A350. “Then we will have four flights per week from Mumbai, which will be on wide-body aircraft to Hanoi,” he adds.
Pham Thi Nguyet, Director for Marketing & Sales, Vietnam Airlines, says, “According to our strategic plan, we want to increase capacity and frequency to and from India, and we believe India will becomes one of our top five biggest international markets. From this May, we will have 21 flights per week between India and Vietnam. In the long term, we will continue to increase capacity to Australia.”
