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Vietnam Airlines plans more direct flights to
Japan and
Germany, while
considering several other destinations in 2005, officials said.
 By
mid-2005, a route linking the southern business hub of Ho Chi Minh City and
Nagoya in central Japan would be established, Vietnam Airlines spokesperson
Nguyen Chan told Agence France-Presse.
The carrier would also open a direct route to Germany's business centre
of Frankfurt.
Vietnam Airlines already operates a twice-weekly service from Ho Chi Minh
City to Frankfurt, its second European destination after
Paris,
with stopovers in Hanoi and Moscow.
'We are trying to accelerate preparations to meet the targets set but
progress also depends on the foreign partners,' Chan said.
The national flag carrier would also consider routes to Western
Australia, India, Indonesia
and the west coast of the United States.
The company said last year it planned to establish a direct air link
between Vietnam and the US by the end of 2005 or at the start of 2006.
The state-owned airline carried a record five million passengers in 2004,
leading to a 16 per cent rise in revenues to 1.1 billion USD.
Passenger numbers are forecast to grow 13.6 per cent this year to 5.7
million, the company said.
The International Air Transport Association has said that Vietnam's air
travel industry would grow 10.5 per cent annually over the next 10 years. |
