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Budget airline Vietjet launched its new three times weekly service from Melbourne to Ho Chi Minh City on Easter Sunday.
The A330-300, VN-A811, departed the Victorian capital at 2:29am on 9 April as flight VJ82 and landed in Vietnam at 7:37am local time.
Victor Pody was in Melbourne to shoot the moment the aircraft arrived the day prior.
Vietjet joins Bamboo Airways, Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar in flying the route and plans to upgrade it to a daily service by December 2024.
Melbourne Airport’s chief of aviation, Jim Parashos, said Vietnam has consistently been one of its top 10 international destinations.
“Low-cost fares will make the trip even more appealing to leisure and business travellers, and of course, people wanting to connect with family and friends at both ends of the route,” said Parashos.
“Victoria is home to a large Vietnamese community, with Melbourne’s vibrant and fast-growing migrant population making the city a key inbound market with Melbourne Airport the natural gateway to Australia.
“There are also around 9,500 Vietnamese students enrolled at Victorian institutions making Vietnam one of the state’s largest international student populations.”
Vietjet will initially operate three return services each week, departing Melbourne on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 12:30am.
Last month, Australian Aviation reported how capacity at Melbourne Airport is continuing to increase, with more than 20 million passengers in the financial year to date, though, as yet remains below pre-pandemic levels.
The airport saw a total of 2,312,697 travellers through its terminals during February, roughly double the total from February 2022, including 659,641 international passengers – a growth of almost 350 per cent over the previous year.
“This is good news for Victoria’s education sector and the broader economy, as full-fee paying overseas students return for their studies and add extra numbers to the state’s labour pool,” said Melbourne Airport CEO Lorie Argus.
“Melbourne Airport has worked hard to secure extra flights to India and Malaysia as well as a return of capacity to Europe, New Zealand and China, and these figures suggest that is paying dividends.”
However, this represents only 81 per cent of the airport’s capacity from February 2019, the last year before the full impact of COVID-19, when 2,867,243 passengers passed through Melbourne’s terminals.
According to Argus, the airport has started work on refreshing its international arrivals walk and check-in area.
“We’ve also been able to start taking some of the hoardings down in the Qantas T1 domestic terminal, with fantastic new WH Smith and Icons Victoria outlets now open to travellers,” she said.
“More new retailers will open in T1 over the coming months, and when construction is finished later this year, we are confident it will be the best domestic terminal in the country.”
