Vietnamese airline Bamboo Airways has announced a second service between Melbourne and Vietnam, with non-stop flights to and from Hanoi scheduled to begin on April 27. The service marks the first direct connection between Melbourne and Hanoi.
The airline intends to initially operate one return flight per week between Melbourne and the Vietnamese capital, using Boeing 787 aircraft.
The announcement follows the launch of the airlineโs service between Melbourne and Ho Chi Minh City, which took flight in February this year.
Bamboo Airways chose Melbourne as its Australian headquarters and became the first new foreign carrier to serve Victoria since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Melbourne Airport Chief of Aviation Lorie Argus said that she was thrilled that Bamboo Airways had expanded its services.
โBamboo Airways was the first new international airline we welcomed to Melbourne since the start of the pandemic, so to be expanding into an additional service so quickly after the initial announcement is great news for Melbourne Airport. Itโs also exciting to have the first-ever direct service between Melbourne and Hanoi.
โItโs also great news for Australians, who we know love visiting Vietnam. Importantly, this service will also help connect the Vietnamese community in Australia to friends and family back home, as well as enable us to welcome Vietnamese visitors and international students to Melbourne,โ she said.
Truong Phuong Thanh, Deputy General Director of Bamboo Airways, added: โThe regular non-stop Hanoi-Melbourne route is a testament to Bamboo Airwaysโ resilience and strategic vision in connecting Vietnam and the world despite the unexpected pandemic.
โWith the support and expansive network of Melbourne Airport, we believe our new non-stop service will create favourable conditions for the travellers of both countries, thus contributing to fruitful ties between Vietnam and Australia in various aspects such as trade, commerce, investment, culture, and tourism.
โThis is also a crucial premise for Bamboo Airways to further expand the non-stop flight network to other destinations in Australia, and to connect Australia with countries in Europe and Asia through Vietnam as a transport hub,โ he said.
Member for St Albans Natalie Suleyman MP said that Bamboo Airwaysโ new services deliver multiple opportunities for local communities.
โThese new connections between Melbourne and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City mean that our huge Vietnamese population in Melbourne have more opportunities to visit family and friends and reconnect after a long two years apart.
โBut just as important as these reunions is the fact that as international tourism reopens, it creates new jobs and new opportunities for people who live in the area, and we are so excited about this,โ she said.
The Melbourne-Hanoi service is subject to regulatory approval. The announcement delivers on a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2019.
For further information:
Bamboo Airways: ๏ปฟ๏ปฟ+84ย 988448920