LookAtVietnam – Foreign airlines active in Vietnam have launched or are working on plans to operate new flights to Australia, Europe and other destinations that allow air links for passengers departing from this country.

The new service on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays is conducted by AirAsia X, which is a long-haul affiliate of the Kuala Lumpur-based airline group with its shareholders.

Passengers from Hanoi and HCMC can fly with AirAsia to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal in Kuala Lumpur before boarding the flights of AirAsia X to Stansted Airport in London as well as destinations in Australia, India and China.

AirAsia operates daily services between these major cities of Vietnam and Kuala Lumpur, and plans to increase frequencies on these sectors in the summer scheduled this year.

Another foreign airline active in Vietnam, Qatar Airways is planning new services to Australia, India, and Europe from this month toward the end of 2009 via its Doha hub in the Middle East.

The Doha-based, five-star carrier plans to use Boeing B777-200 long-range aircraft for its non-stop flights from Doha to the Australia cities of Sydney and Melbourne. These are the cities where a large community of Vietnamese origin and students live.

Currently, Qatar Airways operate services between Vietnam and Europe via Doha on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and most of the carrier’s passengers on these were Europeans including British, French and Italian travelers.

To attract more bookings to the Vietnam-Europe flights, Qatar Airways is offering two-way tickets from US$650, and these promotional tickets are available until March 31 and for travel until June 30, 2009.

Qatar Airways has marked down the fuel surcharge by 20% to US$70 for a flight to Doha, US$74 to the Middle East and US$84 to Europe.

Executives of Qatar Airways are pinning hopes that the carrier will soon increase flight frequencies to and from Vietnam as this was a growing market.

Ish Jalal, area manager of Qatar Airways in Vietnam, told the Daily earlier this year that the carrier wanted to increase the number of services to Vietnam but was unable to realize this because of aircraft shortage.

Qatar Airways currently operates an aircraft fleet of around 68, and has on order over 200 new Airbus and Boeing aircraft worth over US$40 billion.

The fleet expansion is part of the airline’s ongoing strategy to develop its global network as new aircraft join the fleet at an average delivery rate of one a month.

The airline targets flying to more than 100 cities all over the world by 2012, in which the New Doha International Airport is scheduled for opening.

VietNamNet/SGT