VietNamNet Bridge - The aviation market of Vietnam in general and HCM City in particular have attracted more foreign airlines.

Emirates Airline began using 777-300ER widebody aircraft with more seats on the route from Dubai to Ho Chi Minh City from November 16 while Cathay Pacific has increased the number of flights between Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City to 18 flights per week.

In 2016, there will be more international routes, including the Guangzhou - Phu Quoc Island by China Southern Airlines and the intercontinental route connecting Addis Ababa to HCM City by Ethiopian Airlines.

New routes to China

On December 10 this year, China Eastern Airlines will launch a new route linking HCM City to Kunming, with three flights per week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, using narrow body aircraft B737-800 with eight business class seats and 156 economy class seats.

The flight will depart from Kunming at 16h15, arrive in Ho Chi Minh City at 18h10 and depart HCM City to Kunming at 19h10 (local time).

This carrier will also provide flights between Hanoi and Kunming with 2 flights per week on Monday and Friday, starting from December 7, 2015.

From Kunming, the flight will depart at 18h20 and arrive in Hanoi at 18h30 and depart Hanoi to Kunming at 19h30 (local time).

At present China Eastern Airlines has two flights between Hanoi and Kunming, transiting in Nanning, on Thursday and Sunday and seven flights per week from HCM City to Shanghai (Pudong International Airport).

New route to New Zealand

Next June, Vietnamese businesspeople and tourists will have a new attractive destination to find business opportunities and to discover New Zealand.

On November 13, Air New Zealand announced that it will open a direct route linking Auckland to Ho Chi Minh City.

Representatives of the largest airlines of New Zealand said that at the beginning, during the period from June to October 2016, this carrier will provide three weekly nonstop flights lasting for 11 hours by B767-300 (224 seats), which can become a daily flight, using bigger and more modern aircraft of B787-9 Dreamliner (302 seats).

The company expects that its 30th international route will have 85% of passengers as New Zealand tourists to Vietnam. In recent years, an average of 15,000 New Zealand visitors visited Vietnam each year and there were 3,000 Vietnamese visitors to New Zealand.

Currently, Vietnam is a market for many products of New Zealand.

With this new route, Vietnamese tourists will have the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful natural scenery of New Zealand easily and more quickly, without having to make a transit in Singapore or Sydney, Melbourne (Australia).

Linking Istanbul to Hanoi and HCM City

If things go as smoothly as planned, in late June 2016 the familiar air route for Vietnamese businessmen and tourists from HCM City to Istanbul, Turkey, with transit in Bangkok, will be changed.

Turkish Airlines plans to turn this daily route into 5 flights per week with the following characteristics: no transit at Bangkok, with three flights from Istanbul to Hanoi and two flights from Istanbul to HCM City, using Airbus A 330-300 and A 340-300.

Pha Le