Budget carrier Vietjet will launch on December 2 its first direct flight from Ho Chi Minh City to the northern highlands province of Dien Bien, where the historic 1954 Dien Bien Phu Battle ended France's colonial rule in Indochina.
The new service, launched after the local airport reopens after months of upgrade work, will have three flights a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the carrier said in a release.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam had earlier announced that the Dien Bien Airport would reopen December 2 after being closed for upgrade and expansion work.
The VND1.5 trillion ($61 million) expansion project, begun in January 2022, aimed to increase the airport’s annual capacity to 500,000 passengers from the previous 300,000. The upgrade will enable the airport to handle bigger aircraft like the Airbus A320 and A321, authorities said.
Of the six provinces in Vietnam’s northern mountainous region, Dien Bien is the only one accessible by air.
Before the Dien Bien Airport was closed for upgrades, only Vietnam Airlines and Bamboo Airways operated flights to and from Dien Bien, around 500 kilometers to the west of Hanoi.
Dien Bien is home to the Dien Bien Phu battle which raged for 56 days in 1954 before Vietnam's decisive victory spelt the end of France's colonial rule in Indochina and paved the way for Vietnam's independence.
Besides its history, Dien Bien possesses several scenic spots including the Pa Khoang Reservoir, Tham Bang Cave, Ban Phu Citadel, and Museum of Dien Bien Phu Victory.
It is also the only province that shares the border line with both Laos and China with a total length of 455.57 km - 414.71 km with the former and 40.86 km with the latter.
Dien Bien plans to develop tourism into a spearhead economic sector for the province and expects this will boost other industries in the locality.
The northern province welcomed more than 790,000 tourists in the first nine months of this year, up 230% over the same period last year. It earned tourism revenues of nearly VND1.4 trillion ($56.98 million), up 65% year-on-year.
Budget airline VietJet Air, owned by Vietnam’s first woman billionaire Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, was named "Asia's Leading Airline for Customer Experience 2023" at this year’s World Travel Awards for the Asia and Oceania regions.
Vietjet Air has announced it will open new routes connecting Vietnam’s top tourist destinations with global economic hubs from this month as tourism shows strong recovery signs.