Asia-Pacific carriers are looking to new markets as the region opens up
By DAVID CASEY
Vietjet’s network will extend to Australia from March, while Virgin Australia and Nok Air are also making their first moves into new markets.
Vietjet’s first scheduled nonstop flights to Australia will take off in March, providing a new connection between Ho Chi Minh City and Melbourne.
The airline has been increasing its widebody fleet in recent months in preparation for the expansion of its long-haul network. A third Airbus A330-300 joined the fleet in December.
Flights between Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) and Melbourne (MEL) will commence on March 31, operating three times per week. Vietjet hopes to increase frequencies to daily by the end of 2024 should market conditions allow.
At a ceremony to announce the new route, Tim Pallas, trade and investment minister for the Australian state of Victoria, said the additional connectivity to Vietnam would increase inbound and outbound leisure traffic, as well as boosting the region’s export markets.
Data from Vietnam’s General Statistics Office found that bilateral trade between Vietnam and Australia reached a record at $12.4 billion in 2021, while air freight exports of Victorian products to Vietnam were valued at $113 million in 2021-22, up 77% on the previous 12 months.
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 the largest international student populations.
Prior to the pandemic, an estimated 53,500 visitors to Victoria were also from Vietnam, which was almost half of all Vietnamese travelers to Australia in 2019.
Vietjet’s flights will add 3,500 tonnes of air freight to Victoria each year, as well as some 136,000 seats between Australia and Vietnam. The government of Victoria hopes the route will generate an A$97 million ($67 million) annual boost to the state’s economy once fully operational.
Vietjet will be the second Vietnamese airline to establish services to Melbourne since the pandemic after Bamboo Airways commenced flights in April 2022.
Vietjet’s flights to MEL will depart SGN at 9:50 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, arriving in Melbourne at 10:35 p.m. the same day. The return service on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays will depart at 12:30 a.m. and arrive back in Ho Chi Minh City at 5:15 a.m. the same day.
Virgin Australia will return to long-haul flying in June with service to Tokyo Haneda (HND), finally making use of a slot it gained at the Japanese airport before the pandemic.
The carrier intends to introduce daily flights from Cairns (CNS), on the northeast coast of Australia, to Haneda from June 28. Service will be onboard Boeing 737-8s for the 7-hour 45-minute flight, becoming one of the world’s longest MAX routes.
Virgin was previously planning to launch a Haneda flight from Brisbane (BNE) in March 2020, but the service was shelved due to the COVID-19 crisis.
The Cairns-Haneda flight will mark the airline’s first foray into long-haul flying since its restructuring. It has focused mainly on its domestic network since then, with a handful of flights to short-haul international destinations using its 737NGs.
The new route is being launched in partnership with the Queensland Government and Cairns Airport through the Queensland Government’s Attracting Aviation Investment Fund, an A$200 million ($138 million) investment fund in partnership with the state’s four international airports.
Virgin Australia will provide competition in the Cairns-Tokyo market with Qantas subsidiary Jetstar, which offers a 5X-weekly service to Tokyo Narita (NRT) using 787-8s, rising to daily from the start of the northern summer 2023 season.
Once Virgin Australia’s flights commence, the airline will provide about 2,422 two-way weekly seats between the cities, OAG data shows, giving it a 34% capacity share. Jetstar will operate 4,690 seats for a 64% share.
Jetstar resumed CNS-NRT flights in July 2022 following an easing of international travel restrictions after a hiatus of more than two years. Tokyo is one is two destinations in Japan served by the LCC alongside Osaka Kansai (KIX).
As travel restrictions across the Asia-Pacific region continue to ease, Thai LCC Nok Air is returning to the Indian market later this month with its first flights to Hyderabad (HYD).
The airline launched an inaugural Indian route in April 2019, offering a limited service between Bangkok Don Mueang (DMK) and Vishakhapatnam (VTZ). A second route to Guwahati (GAU) then operated from October through January 2020. However, Nok has been absent from India ever since.
The carrier plans to restart Indian operations from Bangkok Don Mueang to Hyderabad on Feb. 19, operating four times per week using 737-800s. The nonstop flights on the 2,401-km (1,297-nm) sector will offer some 1,512 weekly seats between the cities.
OAG data shows that Nok will provide indirect competition for Thai Airways International, which links Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (BKK) and Hyderabad daily using 787-8s, providing 3,584 two-way weekly seats.
Thai Airways has been a long-time operator of Bangkok-Hyderabad flights, although SpiceJet also served the market between October 2018 and April 2019, and Thai Smile between May and October 2022.
According to figures provided by Sabre, O&D traffic between Bangkok and Hyderabad totaled 129,695 two-way passengers in 2019, equivalent to about 177 passengers per day each way. The latest data suggests traffic was around 48,000 two-way passengers during the first 11 months of 2022.
Nok will be seeking to target inbound leisure traffic on the new route, with its extensive domestic network in Thailand offering connections to destinations including Phuket, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. CEO Wutthiphum Jurangkool has stated he hopes Hyderabad will be a steppingstone to further expansion in India this year.
