QATAR: Qatar Airways Commences Doha To Da Nang, Vietnam

Qatar Airways has inaugurated its first flight to Da Nang, the airline’s third destination in Vietnam. The Doha carrier deployed its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on this new route.

Qatar Airways CEO, Akbar Al Baker who was pleased to extend the airline’s reach into Vietnam by launching its third gateway into this beautiful country.

The addition of Da Nang to our global network further demonstrates our commitment to the Far East region, a highly important market for Qatar Airways.

And we are excited for passengers traveling to and from central Vietnam to experience our award-winning service and product for themselves, he added.

There are up to 56 weekly flights to and from Vietnam with Qatar Airways, offering significant connectivity through its Doha mega-hub.

The route also coincided with the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and Qatar. Al Baker noted that through this expansion into Vietnam, it will make ties between both countries even stronger.

The airline’s relationship with Vietnam has stemmed since 2007, which is less than between the 25 years of diplomatic ties of the countries.

Services to Ho Chi Minh City began in 2007 and launched services to Hanoi three years later.

In order to extend its presence in the Vietnamese market, October 2017 saw the airline sign an interline partnership with VietJet Air, allowing QR passengers to travel to and from points in Vietnam not served directly by Qatar Airways using a single reservation across both networks.

This is the 14th route launch from the carrier this year, earmarking significant growth for 2018 overall. 2019 will see the airline launching services into the likes of Valletta, Malta as well as Isfahan, Iran.


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ESTONIA: Nordica Is Estonias Busiest Airline,SmartLynx Airlines Helps VietJet Air

State-owned Estonian carrier Nordica, which was created to take over defunct Estonian Air, managed to right away become the busiest airline in its home airport of Tallinn.

The operator reports that in 2016 it serviced more than 18% of the regular passenger traffic going through the capital’s gateway which in absolute figures means more than 365 thousand people.

Although Nordica has not announced its precise share, the carrier underlines it is going 0.1% ahead of the next contender on the rating list.

Tallinn Airport’s 2016 Report says the second busiest airline is Latvian flag carrier airBaltic followed by Ryanair, Lufthansa and Finnair.

All of the companies are reported to control from 10% to 15% of Tallinn’s overall passenger traffic.

Last year the airport of the Estonian capital serviced more than 2.22 million people, which is 2.5% more than a year before. It operates 23 destinations all year round and 34 destinations within the summer schedule.

Nordica’s website says its regular flight network includes 12 destinations, namely to Vilnius (Lithuania), Kyiv (Ukraine), Stockholm and Örebro (Sweden), Oslo and Trondheim (Norway), Copenhagen (Denmark), Amsterdam and Groningen (the Netherlands), Brussels (Belgium), Munich (Germany) and Vienna (Austria). All flights are performed under the code-sharing agreement with LOT Polish Airlines.

This Warsaw-based carrier is actually looking into a 49% share in the Estonian operator.

It is exactly in the interest of the Polish partner that Nordica serves Warsaw from Tallinn and both Stockholm and Vilnius from Warsaw.

Nordica started operation in November 2015. Its fleet currently consists of two Bombardier CRJ700 regional jets as well as four CRJ900s.

Estonian branch of Latvian carrier SmartLynx Airlines, whose revenue is by about 80% generated through ACMI agreements, has sent its fleet, two Airbus A320, to fly for Vietnamese low-cost carrier VietJet Air.

Both of SmartLynx Estonia's aircraft fitted with 180 seats in single-class configuration will be based at Noibai airport located in 45 km from downtown Hanoi.

The aircraft with tail numbers ES-SAK and ES-SAM were ferried to the capital of Vietnam in mid-January. The Estonian carrier and its Vietnamese partner signed the ACMI agreement in the fall of 2016.

According to Flightradar24 service, the Estonian aircraft are now operated on VietJet Air's flights to Danang, Phu Quoq, Ho Chi Minh and Hue.

Each aircraft operates from five to nine daily flights inside Vietnam. SmartLynx' PR manager Ilva Priedniece told Russian Aviation Insider that both aircraft will fly for VietJet Air until mid-February.

SmartLynx has had similar contracts with Vietnamese operators in the past. Since May 2016 the Latvian airline has been helping another local low-cost carrier, Jetstar Pacific Airlines. According to Priedniece, the agreement will be in effect until mid-May 2017.

SmartLynx Airlines also has experience of providing ACMI services to operators in the UK, Germany, Israel, Spain, the UAE, Poland, Portugal, Tajikistan, Turkey, Czech Republic, Sweden, Equatorial Guinea etc.

VIETNAM: VietJet Air Expands To Kuala Lumpur

VietJet Air is entering a new phase as the fast-growing Vietnamese LCC takes on AirAsia on the Ho Chi Minh-Kuala Lumpur route. Kuala Lumpur will become the sixth international destination for VietJet and only the fourth international market where it faces competition from other LCCs.

Since its late 2011 launch VietJet has focused primarily on the domestic market, where it now serves 17 destinations. However Vietnam’s domestic market is starting to become saturated after four years of rapid growth, and VietJet strategically needs to establish a bigger international presence.

VietJet is also expanding in Taiwan, with planned new services to Kaohsiung and Tainan and a second daily flight on the Ho Chi Minh-Taipei route. But VietJet faces challenges in establishing its brand overseas and has already experienced some setbacks in the international market.

VIETNAM: VietJet Air Launched New Air Route To Bangkok

The budgeted airline VietJet Air has newly launched its first international air route Ho Chi Minh City – Bangkok during Tet Holiday. This adds another considerable option for both domestic and international passengers in Vietnam to save one’s money when travel to Thailand.

At present, VietJet Air offers only one flight per day from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok. The airline also planned to open similar routes Hanoi - Bangkok in this May, and Da Nang – Bangkok in this August.

Thais media considers this new launch as a critical step of VietJet Air to integrate with the Asian air carrier alliance. Thais media mentioned about the scandal bikini shows on the airplane of VietJet Air but don’t fail to praise that the airline is going on the right track to fix its mistake and no longer apply handy tips to attract more passengers.

Although VietJet Air has been established for more than one year, it has been developing rapidly to overwhelm Air Mekong and Jetstar to be the second most favorite air carrier in the domestic market after the national airline Vietnam Airlines.

Until now, VietJet Air operates on 9 domestic routes with 6 Airbus A320 airplanes and the airline intends to increase its fleet to a minimum of 20 airplanes in 2015 to expand its business to other market in the Northeastern Asia, Korea and Taiwan.

VIETNAM: Vietjet Orders 9 Airbus A321ceo And 21 A321neo Airliners

Vietjet Air has placed a firm order with Airbus for the purchase of 30 more A321s (9 A321ceo and 21 A321neo). The order was signed at the Dubai Airshow by Vietjet President and CEO, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, and John Leahy, Airbus Chief Operating Officer, Customers.

Vietjet first took to the skies at the end of 2011 and now operates a fleet of 29 A320 Family aircraft including three A321s, on a network covering Vietnam and a growing number of destinations across Asia. Following today’s announcement the airline has placed firm orders with Airbus for a total of 99 A320 Family aircraft.