LONDON – The Victorian state government has announced that Victorians will soon benefit from more international flights from Vietnam, with low-cost airline VietJet selecting Melbourne to commence its first flights to Australia.
With the support of both the Victorian Government and Melbourne Airport, the Vietnamese airline will begin its service from Ho Chi Minh City to Melbourne by April 2023. It is proposed that the carrier will operate three non-stop flights each week, growing to a daily service by December 2024.
VietJet will also establish its national Australian head office in the state of Victoria.
A boost to local economy
The flights are expected to add more than 136,000 seats to Melbourne each year and generate around $97 million annually for the Victorian economy once fully operational.
VietJet will effectively become the second Vietnamese airline to establish services to Melbourne since the global pandemic after Bamboo Airways commenced flights in April 2022.
As well as passenger services, the proposed flights will add 3,500 tonnes of air freight to Victoria each year.
Air freight exports of Victorian products to Vietnam were valued at $113 million in 2021-22, up 77 per cent on the previous year.
Victoria is also a popular tourism and study destination for visitors from Vietnam. Around 9,500 Vietnamese students are currently enrolled at Victorian institutions – one of Australia’s largest international student populations.
About Vietjet
VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Company, trading as VietJet Air (or simply Vietjet), is an international Vietnamese low-cost airline. It became the first privately owned airline to be established in Vietnam, being granted its initial approval to operate by the Vietnamese Minister of Finance in November 2007.[
As of its launch in December 2011, it became the second private airline to offer domestic services in Vietnam, as well as the fifth airline overall to offer civil domestic flights.
VietJet Air is owned by Sovico Holdings, HDBank, other organisational investors, and individual stakeholders.
As at December 2022, the carrier operated and all-Airbus fleet. This includes 18 Airbus A320, 38 A321, three A330 and 19 A321neo aircraft.
The carrier also shows 20 Airbus A321XLR aircraft on order. The airline shows open orders for a significant Boeing 737 MAX fleet with listed orders for 66 MAX 8, 106 MAX 10 and 28 MAX 200 aircraft.
Deliveries for the Boeing fleet range from 2024 to 2028.
