VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam Airlines will open two new air routes connecting Phu Quoc International Airport in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang with Singapore and Siem Reap (Cambodia) from November 1.

The electronic Giao thong van tai newspaper of the Ministry of Transport reported that the carrier will operate two flights per week by A321 aircraft on the Phu Quoc – Singapore route and three flights a week by ATR72 on the Phu Quoc-Siem Reap route.

In 2013, Phu Quoc airport served nearly 700,000 passengers, up 39 percent from the previous year.

It catered for some 450,000 passengers in the first half of this year, representing 60.8 percent of its yearly plan and a 34.1 percent increase against the same period of 2013.

At the same time, the airport handled 836 tonnes of goods, fufilling 86.6 percent of the annual target and rising by 101.2 percent from a year earlier.

The launching of the new routes is expected to help further boost Kien Giang Province’s socio-economic development, especially the attraction of investment for tourism in Phu Quoc, in the time to come.

Tourism Property Association forum to kick off in HCM City

The Viet Nam Tourism Property Association Congress II, with the theme "Co-Development – Global Integration", will be held next Friday in HCM City.

More than 500 domestic and international tourism property enterprises are expected to attend.

The meeting will see the participation of 700 delegates including 50 leaders of the Party, governments, organisations, promotion centres, representatives from 63 provinces and cities, and commercial associations and counselors from 20 countries.

The forum will discuss about the activities for the next term until 2018 and solutions to develop tourism properties. A new executive board for the second term will be elected, and calls for investment in 100 tourism property projects nationwide will be made.

Vietnam Airlines reroutes flights to Europe

National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines (VNA) on July 18 announced it has diverted four flights to Europe for safety reasons following the Malaysian plane tragedy in the Ukraine.

The rerouted VNA flights included flight VN37 Hanoi – Frankfurt flight, VN17 Hanoi – Paris flight, VN55 Hanoi – London flight, and VN11 HCM City – Paris flight.

VNA reported these flights departure on the morning of July 18, were delayed three to five hours from the original schedule to accommodate the new flight path.

Meanwhile, VNA also adjusted the departure schedule of 22 flights to and from Hanoi on July 17 due to the impact of Typhoon Rammasun, which is heading towards Vietnam’s northern coastal provinces.

Around 3,000 customers were affected by the rescheduling.

Locals offered air ticket discounts

The HCM City Tourism Association has launched a domestic tourism promotion programme signed with two carriers, Vietnam Airlines and VietJet Air.

Under the programme, Vietnam Airlines will offer a ticket discount of 32-70 per cent to 12 travel agencies joining the promotion programme, including Saigontourist, Vietravel, VietMedia Travel and Fiditour.

Meanwhile, low-cost VietJet Air will slash 49 to 90 per cent from its ticket prices on all domestic flights.

Last year, more than 34,000 visitors used promotion tickets sold within the framework of the programme.

Vietnam to open one-way air route by 2015

A one-way airway from north to south is scheduled to open by 2015 to increase safety and save time and fuel costs for Vietnamese airlines, a chief aviation officer said Friday.

The Ministry of Transport and Ministry of National Defense have agreed on a reorganization of the Vietnamese airspace so that there will be more airways for civil flights, Lai Xuan Thanh, head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, said after a meeting of the two ministries.

The one-way air route from north to south, which will enable aircrafts to travel to and return from a destination on two separate airways, will help save time for passengers and fuel costs for the air carriers, Thanh said.

Vietnam currently only has two-way air routes, forcing airplanes to fly on different latitudes on the same routes to avoid collisions, according to the CAAV.

Consequently, major airports such as Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City and Noi Bai in Hanoi are often overloaded during busy times, causing airplanes to have to wait to land.

The Ministry of National Defense has also green-lighted a plan to open the second taxiway at Tan Son Nhat airport to reduce overloads, Thanh, the CAAV chief, added.

VNA/VOV/VNN