Vietjet Air opens first direct route from Hanoi to Japan hinh anh 1Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) - Budget carrier Vietjet Air officially launched its first direct flights to Japan, connecting the capital city of Hanoi and Osaka city.

The new route is hoped to help boost tourism, trade and integration between the two countries.

The opening ceremony took place at Kansai Airport in the special traditional “Kagami Biraki” of Japan. All passengers onboard both inaugural flights received charming gifts such as brocade bags, special pens and caps from Vietjet Air representatives.

“We are honoured that Kansai International Airport has been chosen as Vietjet’s first destination in Japan from Hanoi and soon from HCM City,” said Jeremy Goldstrich, Corporate Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Kansai Airport.

“Hanoi is an amazing city and is also the gateway to world famous tourist destinations such as Ha Long Bay, Ninh Binh and Sapa,” he said, expressing his hope that more people from Japan and Vietnam as well as international travellers can enjoy travelling, touring and trading between the countries thanks to Vietjet’s affordable flights.

Using Vietjet’s modern new A321neo aircraft, the Hanoi-Osaka route operates a daily return flight with a time of just over four hours per leg. The flight departs from Hanoi at 1.40am and arrives in Osaka at 7:50am (local time). In the other direction, the flight takes off in Osaka at 9:20am (local time) and lands in Hanoi at around 1:05pm.

This is the first international route in the code-share programme between Vietjet Air and Japan Airlines. The code-share service is also applied to domestic flights connecting Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, and Hanoi and Da Nang.

Vietjet’s new service to Osaka brings the airline’s total number of international routes up to 64, with a network that spans 11 countries and territories. The carrier will soon launch two other routes to Japan from Vietnam, including HCM City-Osaka (Kansai) from December 14, 2018 and Hanoi-Tokyo (Narita) from January 11, 2019.

To celebrate the new Hanoi-Osaka route, Vietjet is offering 10,000 promotional tickets on flights to Japan, priced from zero dong, from November 7-9.
They are applicable for Hanoi-Osaka flights from November 8, Ho Chi Minh City-Osaka flights from December 14 and Hanoi-Tokyo flights from January 11, 2019, to March 30, 2019.

The promotional tickets are available on www.vietjetair.com and www.facebook.com/vietjetvietnam.

With a fleet of more than 60 aircraft, Vietjet operates 385 flights each day. The airline has already transported more than 60 million passengers on a network featuring 93 routes in Vietnam and across the region to international destinations such as Thailand, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, China’s Taiwan and Hong Kong, mainland China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar and Cambodia.

The carrier plans to operate more than 120,000 flights and serve some 24.1 million passengers by the end of 2018 on a total of 39 domestic and 61 international routes. -VNA
VNA