Vietnamese low-cost carrier VietJet Air is growing its routes to Australia and plans to add direct flights to Ho Chi Minh City from Darwin and Adelaide after launching direct routes to Sydney and Melbourne from April.

“In the coming year, we plan to expand to cities including Darwin, Adelaide, and Brisbane,” VietJet vice president Nguyen Thanh Son said to a travel magazine.

“Our direct flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Melbourne and Sydney make it easier and more convenient for business, education and tourism between Vietnam and Australia.”

Mr Nguyen said interest in visiting Vietnam has soared since the country reopened to visitors in March 2022, with major hubs of Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi attracting most of the business and leisure travel.

Vietjet offers connections to a number of domestic and international ports from Ho Chi Minh, such as Da Nang and Hanoi, and Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in Cambodia, the company said.

The NT Government has not said whether it would provide any funding for the proposed new route to Ho Chi Minh but has been known to subsidise flights.

In 2018, it signed a deal to provide Chinese provider Donghai airlines with an undisclosed amount of taxpayer money for direct flights to Shenzhen, China.

Meanwhile, Vietjet is among the few low cost carriers which offer ‘Skyboss Business’ premium cabins for international flights using Airbus 330s. The airline’s Skyboss Business class comes with 12 leather seats folding out into an older-style angled flatbed.

Initially entering the Australian air travel market in Melbourne on April 8, Vietjet’s weekly route schedules will run as follows:

Melbourne flights depart every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, with the last flight at 12:30 am, arriving at Ho Chi Minh City at 5:15 am.

Return flights depart Ho Chi Minh City at 9:50 am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, touching down in Melbourne at 10:35 pm.

Schedule for three weekly Sydney-Ho Chi Minh City flights starting April 12 are as follows:

Sydney to Ho Chi Minh City flights will depart every Monday, Thursday and Saturday at 10:15 am, which arrives at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Return flights from Ho Chi Minh City leave every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 7:30 pm, landing in Sydney at 7:20 am the next day.

VietJet is an LCC based in Hanoi Noi Bai International Airport, Vietnam. The airline started operations on December 2011 with three A320 aircraft servicing Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. In 2022, the carrier had a current fleet consisting of 77 aircraft.