Vietnam Airlines to welcome 12 millionth passenger

Vietnam Airlines will welcome the 12 millionth passenger at Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi next week, thus fulfilling its annual target for this year days earlier, said the southern regional office of the national flag carrier.
The target for around 12 million passengers this year was announced by Duong Tri Thanh, deputy general director of Vietnam Airlines, at a function organized in HCMC in July to mark its full SkyTeam membership achieved on June 10.
The revised target is higher than the 11 million passengers that Vietnam Airlines had aimed for 2010 at the end of 2009, a year when the national flag air carrier saw a year-on-year increase of 6.64% to just over 9.34 million on its domestic and international flights.
Vietnam Airlines attributed the success this year to the aggressive expansion of its international and domestic flight network, strong recovery of global air travel and the 20% growth of Vietnam’s aviation sector.
As for the international segment alone, Vietnam Airlines has opened and increased frequencies on more than 10 air routes. The carrier on Wednesday commenced the HCMC-Tokyo service via a stopover in Danang, using the Airbus A321 aircraft.
The service between Tokyo and Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCMC departs from the stopover in central Vietnam at 2:55 a.m. and arrives at Japan’s Narita Airport at 1:30 p.m. local time. Vietnam Airlines will consider launch of a direct air link between Japan and Danang depending on market demand when the winter schedule ends in late March.
On Thursday, Vietnam Airlines will inaugurate its three weekly direct HCMC-Beijing service on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays, with the 184-seat Airbus A321 used for the first non-stop route between the two destinations of Vietnam and China.
The carrier sells a two-way ticket for the HCMC-Beijing flight from US$299 until December 31 for travel from December 16 to January 31, 2011. This promotional fare excludes airport taxes and surcharge.
With the new service, the airline now flies from Hanoi and HCMC to China’s airports in Beijing, Kunming, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Last year, Vietnam Airlines Corp. registered revenue of more than VND24.6 trillion (over US$1.26 billion), including VND150 billion in pre-tax profit. The carrier has not announced its earnings estimate for this year but is aiming for a 20% increase in the number of passengers next year.