The national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines plans to open a direct route from Hanoi to Sydney, Australia in April next year. 

It will begin flying its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to both Sydney and Melbourne from December 5. 

The first Ho Chi Minh City-Sydney Vietnam Airlines flight was launched in 1996. At the beginning, it operated three flights a week, including one combined flight to Sydney and Melbourne. 

The flight frequency increased to five a week with two separate routes to Sydney and Melbourne later and daily flights have been offered since 2011. 

A celebration was held by the airlines’ representative office in Sydney on October 20 to mark 20 years of the Vietnam-Australia route. 

Australia is one of Vietnam Airlines’ major markets with annual average carriage frequency of 300,000 passengers. The percentage of filled seats hit 84 percent at the beginning of this year, said an officer of the representative office in Sydney.

VNA