Vietjet Air will launch direct flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Australia’s Melbourne from March 31, the budget carrier announced Tuesday on the occasion of a visit to the city by Treasurer of Victoria state Tim Pallas.
Initially, Vietjet Air will operate three flights per week and will increase the frequency to seven from December 2024, using wide-body aircraft Airbus A330.
The flights will depart from HCMC on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 9:50 a.m. (local time) and will arrive in Melbourne at 22:35 p.m. (local time) on the same days.
The Melbourne-HCMC flights will take off at 00:30 (local time) on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays and will reach HCMC at 05:15 a.m. on the same days.
At the launch ceremony, Tim Dallas, also Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Trade and Investment, lauded the entrance of a new Southeast Asian carrier as a major victory for Victoria, indicating the state’s attractive tourism and export markets.
Bamboo Airways, a private airline founded by FLC Group, was the first Vietnamese carrier to launch a non-stop route between Vietnam and Australia. The airline launched its HCMC-Melbourne route in February 2022, using wide-body Boeing 787-9 aircraft. Bamboo then debuted the HCMC-Sydney route in March and Hanoi-Melbourne in April.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, 123,000 Vietnamese people visited Australia in 2019. Two-way trade between Vietnam and Australia hit $12.4 billion in 2021 for the first time, up more than 49% over 2020, making Vietnam the 12th largest partner of Australia and Australia the 10th biggest of Vietnam, according to data of Vietnam's General Statistics Office.