On May 10, Bamboo Airways official opened commercial air routes from the northern port city of Hai Phong to the central coastal city of Quy Nhon, the southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City, and the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.
The launching ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and high-level officials of Hai Phong City and other provinces.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Dang Tat Thang, Standing Vice Chairman of Bamboo Airways, expressed his appreciation for the strong support from the government, who have consistently pursued the open-sky policy for the past several years.
For example, the Standing Vice Chairman of Bamboo Airways compared overseas visits of the Prime Minister and senior government leaders as golden opportunities for bilateral cooperation between enterprises, thanks to specific measures to promote trade between countries of the Vietnamese government.
“During the official visit to the Czech Republic, owning to the dedicated support of the Prime Minister and related ministries and departments, Bamboo Airways was able to facilitate the MoU signing event to open a direct route connecting Vietnam and the Czech Republic”, said Dang Tat Thang.
He emphasized that Cat Bi International Airport is an important aviation gateway of strategic significance for the economy, defense and transportation of Hai Phong in particular and the northern region in general.
Combined with tourism projects to be developed in Hai Phong by FLC Group, three new air routes were expected to help attract more and more visitors to the city and nearby destinations.
Speaking at the event, Chairman of Hai Phong People’s Committee Nguyen Van Tung said this was a positive result after calling Bamboo Airways to open more routes connecting Cat Bi International Airport.
Beside ensuring flight safety, quality, efficiency and punctuality, Nguyen Van Tung proposed Bamboo Airways to continue researching and opening more domestic and international flights from Hai Phong to destinations such as Japan and South Korea, etc.
“We propose FLC Group to invest in logistics facilities at the airport, in compliance with plans approved by the Prime Minister,” said Nguyen Van Tung.
With one round-trip flight per day for each of the three routes, flight duration for the Hai Phong-Quy Nhon route is estimated at about 1 hour 35 minutes, Hai Phong-HCM City at 2 hours, and Hai Phong-Can Tho at 2 hours 5 minutes.
This will be the three first air routes in Bamboo Airways’ plan to build a network of flights connecting Hai Phong’s Cat Bi International Airport with domestic airports (the central coastal city of Da Nang, Phu Quoc island in the southern province of Kien Giang….) as well as international ones (Bangkok, Singapore, Seoul, Siem Reap…).
This is the effort aiming at conducting flights on 37-40 domestic and international air routes in 2019 of Bamboo Airways.
In April 2019, Bamboo Airways have made international flights to the Republic of Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
Bamboo Airways strives to expand its fleets to 40 aircraft by the end of 2019, including the narrow-body Airbus A321 Neo and wide-body Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
By the end of April 2019, Bamboo Airways have conducted nearly 4,000 flights with the rate of punctuality being nearly 93 percent, the highest in the aviation sector. In 2019, the airline aims to increase the frequency of daily flights to 100 per day, serving 5 million passengers.