National carrier Vietnam Airlines will operate direct flights from Vietnam to the United Kingdom beginning December 8, it announced on Sunday.

It will fly from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to London Gatwick Airport, which is located 45.7 km south of Central London.

Vietnam Airlines did not reveal how many flights will be launched each week in the first phase, saying it expected to have seven flights per week from Vietnam to the UK by 2014. 

The flights will use Boeing 777 aircrafts, it said in a statement.

Pham Ngoc Minh, Vietnam Airlines’ general director, said London will become the fourth European destination operated by Vietnam Airlines, along with Paris, Frankfurt and Moscow.

The London Gatwick Airport is London’s second largest international airport and second busiest by total passenger traffic in the UK after Heathrow. Gatwick is Europe’s leading airport for point-to-point flights.

“We are committed to developing a long-term relationship with Vietnam Airlines, helping it realise its own goals for growth,”Stewart Wingate, Gatwick Airport’s chief executive said about the opening of the new route.