Flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Victoria’s state capital will take off at the end of March.
An aerial view of Melbourne’s CBD. (Photo: kokkai/iStock)
Melbourne-based flyers seeking out more affordable flights to Vietnam can look forward to the southern autumn, when fast-growing budget carrier VietJet makes its first foray into Australia. March 31 will see the launch of thrice-weekly nonstop services from Ho Chi Minh City to Tullamarine Airport. The news was announced yesterday at a ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City, attended by VietJet’s Managing Director Dinh Viet Phuong and Victorian Minister for Trade and Investment Tim Pallas, who is currently leading a Victorian delegation on a working visit to Vietnam.
Scheduled every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the outbound flights will depart Ho Chi Minh City at 9:50 a.m. and land at Melbourne at 10:35 p.m. the same evening. Meanwhile, the red-eye return service will be operated on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, when it leaves the Victorian capital at 12:30 a.m. to arrive back in Tan Son Nhat International Airport at 5:15 a.m. local time. The estimated journey time is roughly eight and a half hours each way. Should there be enough market demand, VietJet will bump up frequencies to daily from December 2024.
VietJet plans to utilize wide-body A330 aircraft offering two cabin classes and four fare types: SkyBoss Business, SkyBoss, Deluxe, and Eco. The airline’s competitors on the route are Jetstar, along with full-service carriers Bamboo Airways and Vietnam Airlines.
