Bamboo Airways launches its first international route

The carrier said it will operate one round-trip flight per day with the flight time expected to be four hours and 20 minutes, Bamboo Airways said in a statement.

Bamboo Airways has already been operating charter flights to South Korea since April this year: from Hanoi to Seoul; Hanoi to Jeju, an island south of the country; and Da Nang to Jeju.

The newly established airline expects to open a second regular international route from Nha Trang to Seoul in November, also operating one round trip a day.

South Korea is one of the key markets for Bamboo Airways in Northeast Asia, said Dang Tat Thang, executive vice chairman of Bamboo Airways.

In 2018, the number of visitors from South Korea to Vietnam reached nearly 3.5 million, an increase of 46.5 percent compared to 2017, turning South Korea into the second largest international tourist market after China.

Many Vietnamese tourist destinations such as Da Nang, Hoi An and Nha Trang have become highly favoured destinations for South Koreans, Thang added.

The number of visitors from Vietnam to South Korea in 2018 also surged 40 percent year-on-year to roughly 450,000, and the number of flights between Vietnam and South Korea accounted for 44.5 percent of Vietnam’s total international flights in 2018, he said.

With these numbers expected to continue rising, the new route will help meet the travel needs with many people, Thang said.

Bamboo Airways currently operates 27 routes, and expects to raise this to between 37 and 40 by the end of this year, including long-haul routes to Europe and the Americas, the carrier said in a statement.

Two weeks ago, Bamboo Airways received permission from the Ministry of Transport to operate 30 aircraft, and it plans to achieve this number by the end of the first quarter of 2020. The airline, which began flying in January, has yet to break even.