Big Growth: 4 Airlines Now Operate 12 Australia-Vietnam Routes

Viet · Apr 17, 2023

Analysis

BYJAMES PEARSON
PUBLISHED 2 DAYS AGO

Never has Australia-Vietnam had four passenger airlines.
Photo: Melbourne Airport.

Australia to Vietnam is a big market. Last year, over 600,000 people flew, whether non-stop or via somewhere. Not surprisingly, the pandemic meant traffic was considerably lower than in 2019, when there were just over a million passengers. In 2022, there were three non-stop carriers, then a record. Now there are four: Bamboo Airways, Jetstar, VietJet, and Vietnam Airlines.

Four airlines, five airport pairs

The market is mainly driven by Vietnamese visiting friends and relatives, Vietnamese students, and Australian tourists visiting the great Southeast Asia nation.

There are five airport pairs this southern winter season (March 26th-October 28th), as shown on the following map and summarized in the table later in the article.

When airlines are added, there are 12 nonstop routes. These include two launched this month: VietJet back to Ho Chi Minh City from Melbourne (April 9th) and Sydney (April 13th). It marked the carrier's entry into the Australian market.

Until 2022, Melbourne did not have Hanoi flights. Yet in 2019, it had about 80,000 roundtrip indirect passengers. It was the largest unserved market from Australia to Vietnam. More than that, Melbourne was the largest unserved market worldwide from Hanoi. It has gone from zero airlines to two. Will Bamboo remain?

What about Perth?

Given how long it took for Brisbane to secure Vietnam flights, it is unclear if/when Perth will. Nonetheless, in 2019, Perth-Ho Chi Minh City had about 53,000 roundtrip passengers, a pretty decent volume in itself (even though Brisbane had approximately 73,000). Ho Chi Minh City accounted for two-thirds of all Perth-Vietnam traffic.