Vietnam Airlines plans to increase the number of flights to serve passengers coming to the central province of Thua Thien-Hue to celebrate Hue Festival 2014.

The national flag carrier will operate more return flights from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to Hue until June 23.

It will provide 400 seats every day for the HCM City – Hue city air route and 300 seats for the Hanoi–Hue flight every day until then.

According to Nguyen Van Thanh, deputy head of the festival’s organising board, 17 billion VND has been provided in sponsorship for the event.

The Vietnam Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) is now the biggest sponsor with 5 billion VND (230,000 USD), followed by the Hue Beer Company (Huda), the Bank for Foreign Trade (Vietcombank) and the Bank of Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) with 3 billion VND each.

This year the festival is themed “Cultural heritage with integration and development” and will take place from April 12-20, with a series of national- and provincial-level historical, cultural and artistic events.

It is expected to attract 200,000 visitors and various art troupes from nearly 40 countries around the world.-VNA