Vietnamese budget airline Vietjet latest addition to Melbourne airport

Vietnamese low-cost airline Vietjet is the latest airline to announce flights from Melbourne Airport, with services to Ho Chi Minh City set to start in April.

Melbourne Airport CEO Lorie Argus said Vietjet’s new service will provide even more capacity between Melbourne and the popular Vietnamese destination with the new flights adding more than 136,000 seats to Melbourne each year, increasing “total Vietnam seat capacity this year to 153 per cent of what it was pre-COVID.”

Once fully operational the new flights will generate roughly $97 million annually for the Victorian economy.

“Australians love visiting Vietnam, and Vietjet’s non-stop services are conveniently timed to provide great travel options between the two countries,” Argus said.

“Services will offer an evening departure from Melbourne, allowing travellers to land in Ho Chi Minh in the morning, providing seamless connections to domestic destinations or facilitating a day of business in Vietnam.

“With its extensive international network, Vietjet can also offer low-cost onward flight options to destinations including India, Japan and South Korea via Ho Chi Minh City.

“For the thousands of people in Victoria who were born in Vietnam or have Vietnamese ancestry, this service provides an essential connection to family and friends back home as well as an opportunity for
visitors here.”

With 41 per cent of Vietnamese international students in Australia choosing Victoria as their place of study, the latest addition to Melbourne’s flight itinerary gives students, “another option for them to travel down under to study at our world-class higher learning institutions,” Argus said.

Vietjet will initially operate three return flights per week between Melbourne and Ho Chi Minh City using Airbus A330 aircraft, with plans to grow to a daily service by December 2024 and will be will be the second Vietnamese airline to establish services to Melbourne since the pandemic after Bamboo Airways commenced flights in April 2022.