Air planes of the National Vietnam Airlines land at Da Nang International Airport, Da Nang city. (Photo:VNA) Hanoi (VNA) -National carrier Vietnam Airlines plans to launch the first direct routebetween Vietnam and the United States (US) this year, with the destinationbeing either San Francisco or Los Angeles in California.
According to DeputyDirector of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) Vo Huy Cuong, theopening of this route is facing many challenges, especially fierce competitionamong airlines in the US market.
The US airline market isbeing exploited by many firms, who operate routes from the US to Vietnamthrough transit points. There are many options for passengers, as they can flyfrom the US to Vietnam via Japan, the Republic of Korea (RoK), Taiwan,Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, mainland China or Malaysia. For example,consider the transit points in Japan and the RoK; each point has two majorJapanese and RoK airlines directly flying to the US, which can connect flightsto Vietnam seamlessly.
Meanwhile, passengers whowant to fly to Vietnam from the US’s eastern region can also transit in Europeancountries, such as the United Kingdom, France and Germany, before connectingwith flights to Vietnam.
"The competition isvery fierce; so the Vietnamese airlines planning to fly directly to the US mustanalyse and evaluate the situation carefully," said Cuong.
In addition to economiclicences permitted under the Air Transport agreement signed between the US and Vietnam,the Vietnamese airlines also need a licence granted by the US Federal AviationAdministration (FAA), which is mandatory for all international airlines thatwant to fly into the US, said Cuong.
To obtain the licence fromthe FAA, he said the CAAV would have to reach CAT1 or FAA-standard safetysupervision requirements, a prerequisite for Vietnamese airlines to startdirect flights to the US.
"In October last year,a FAA delegation visited Vietnam for technical assessment. We will likelyinvite FAA to visit the country for more evaluation to gain the CAT1rating," he added.
After making assessment onthe CAAV’s safety supervision capacity, FAA will evaluate the Vietnameseairlines, which have proposed to fly directly to the US, such as VietnamAirlines and Vietjet Air, on their repairing, maintenance and exploitation ofaircraft capacity.
National carrier VietnamAirlines has reached the international 4-star standard after long years of goodpreparation on their structure, and the capacity of aircraft operation andmaintenance. In terms of service quality, Vietnam Airlines has achieved goodresults.
Though Vietnam Airlines hasnot started a direct flight to the US, it has earned a huge market, since 2006,through code sharing with other airlines (seven flights a week to 25 cities inthe US).
As for technicalcapability, there must be a rating from the FAA. Once the qualification is met,then it will fly, said Cuong.
“When we are licensed bythe FAA, we will have the opportunity to sell more tickets because passengerswill feel assured that the Vietnamese airlines have achieved internationalstandards on safety and aviation security. In addition to these, as this is amarket with fierce competition, the airlines participating in this route willhave to improve the quality of services regularly,” said Cuong.
Currently, passengerstravelling from Vietnam to the US have to make at least one stop in anotherAsian city, such as Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and Beijing, withthe total time taken to travel being up to 24 hours.
The US is the fourthlargest source of foreign visitors to Vietnam, with more than 614,000 peoplecoming in 2017, up 11 percent from 2016, according to the General StatisticsOffice.
Vietnam welcomed nearly 13million foreign visitors and raked in nearly 515 trillion VND (22.67 billionUSD) from tourism in 2017.
It hopes the new air routeswill increase the number of visitors up to 20 million in the next two years,when tourism revenues will contribute 10 to 12 percent to the country’s GDP,compared with the current 7 percent.-VNA
According to DeputyDirector of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) Vo Huy Cuong, theopening of this route is facing many challenges, especially fierce competitionamong airlines in the US market.
The US airline market isbeing exploited by many firms, who operate routes from the US to Vietnamthrough transit points. There are many options for passengers, as they can flyfrom the US to Vietnam via Japan, the Republic of Korea (RoK), Taiwan,Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, mainland China or Malaysia. For example,consider the transit points in Japan and the RoK; each point has two majorJapanese and RoK airlines directly flying to the US, which can connect flightsto Vietnam seamlessly.
Meanwhile, passengers whowant to fly to Vietnam from the US’s eastern region can also transit in Europeancountries, such as the United Kingdom, France and Germany, before connectingwith flights to Vietnam.
"The competition isvery fierce; so the Vietnamese airlines planning to fly directly to the US mustanalyse and evaluate the situation carefully," said Cuong.
In addition to economiclicences permitted under the Air Transport agreement signed between the US and Vietnam,the Vietnamese airlines also need a licence granted by the US Federal AviationAdministration (FAA), which is mandatory for all international airlines thatwant to fly into the US, said Cuong.
To obtain the licence fromthe FAA, he said the CAAV would have to reach CAT1 or FAA-standard safetysupervision requirements, a prerequisite for Vietnamese airlines to startdirect flights to the US.
"In October last year,a FAA delegation visited Vietnam for technical assessment. We will likelyinvite FAA to visit the country for more evaluation to gain the CAT1rating," he added.
After making assessment onthe CAAV’s safety supervision capacity, FAA will evaluate the Vietnameseairlines, which have proposed to fly directly to the US, such as VietnamAirlines and Vietjet Air, on their repairing, maintenance and exploitation ofaircraft capacity.
National carrier VietnamAirlines has reached the international 4-star standard after long years of goodpreparation on their structure, and the capacity of aircraft operation andmaintenance. In terms of service quality, Vietnam Airlines has achieved goodresults.
Though Vietnam Airlines hasnot started a direct flight to the US, it has earned a huge market, since 2006,through code sharing with other airlines (seven flights a week to 25 cities inthe US).
As for technicalcapability, there must be a rating from the FAA. Once the qualification is met,then it will fly, said Cuong.
“When we are licensed bythe FAA, we will have the opportunity to sell more tickets because passengerswill feel assured that the Vietnamese airlines have achieved internationalstandards on safety and aviation security. In addition to these, as this is amarket with fierce competition, the airlines participating in this route willhave to improve the quality of services regularly,” said Cuong.
Currently, passengerstravelling from Vietnam to the US have to make at least one stop in anotherAsian city, such as Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and Beijing, withthe total time taken to travel being up to 24 hours.
The US is the fourthlargest source of foreign visitors to Vietnam, with more than 614,000 peoplecoming in 2017, up 11 percent from 2016, according to the General StatisticsOffice.
Vietnam welcomed nearly 13million foreign visitors and raked in nearly 515 trillion VND (22.67 billionUSD) from tourism in 2017.
It hopes the new air routeswill increase the number of visitors up to 20 million in the next two years,when tourism revenues will contribute 10 to 12 percent to the country’s GDP,compared with the current 7 percent.-VNA
VNA
