National carrier Vietnam Airlines said Thursday it will add one new route and more flights on existing routes beginning this month.

It will also launch a new route from Hanoi to Fukuoka province in Japan on October 10.

The daily Ho Chi Minh City-Bangkok service will become twice daily starting December 1. The carrier will also increase the frequency on its Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City route by 20 percent.

Dung said Vietnam Airlines’ passenger numbers this year would increase four percent to nine million.

In the final four months alone, nearly 2.9 million passengers would fly with the airline, up 6 percent from the same period last year, Dung said. But he noted that the number of international passengers would fall 7 percent over the four-month period.

The forecast is much better compared than the projection made by the carrier earlier this year. Pham Ngoc Minh, chief executive officer, said in April that total sales would decline this year and the airline would try everything to avoid a loss.

Worldwide, the airline industry is struggling to make a profit as the global recession cuts leisure and business trips.

The International Air Transport Association this month raised its forecast for overall airline losses for 2009 to US$11 billion from $9 billion, according to AFP.

Passenger demand fell by 1.1 percent last month on a 12-month comparison, marking an improvement in international air travel compared to the 2.9 percent fall recorded in July and a steeper drop in previous months, AFP reported, citing data from the association.

Source: Thanh Nien