Seaplane tours to Halong, Phan Thiet in the offing

Visitors from HCMC and Hanoi City will be able to take seaplane tours to Halong, Phan Thiet, Can Tho, Long Xuyen and Chau Doc daily from June thanks to the services of Thien Minh Group.
Tran Trong Kien, chairman and general director of Thien Minh Group, which has acquired an 89% stake of the carrier Hai Au to launch the service, said that the Hanoi-Halong route will be the main route with eight to 12 trips daily.
The seaplane service will depart from Gia Lam Airport in Hanoi City and Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCMC. The enterprise has yet to announce service charges so far.
Travelers from Hanoi City will spend around 25 minutes traveling to Halong City and 10 more minutes to reach Halong Bay. Meanwhile, there will be one trip between HCMC and Phan Thiet, Can Tho, Chau Doc and Long Xuyen daily.
Visitors can buy individual tickets or hire a seaplane with 12 seats. Thien Minh will offer the service in June but many guests, especially foreign travelers, have booked the seaplane tours already, Kien said.
Three seaplanes are expected to be launched into use. Initially, the enterprise will buy two 12-seat Cessna Caravan planes and hire another one. The two planes will shipped to Vietnam in May.
Established in 1994, Thien Minh Group operates in tourism, hotel and transport sectors. It has 10 hotels with 730 rooms in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and runs hotel booking website ivivu.com.
The enterprise serves over 90,000 travelers and 250,000 hotel guests and obtains annual revenue of US$70 million.