Prime Minister Nguyen XuanPhuc (centre) at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

The launching ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Nguyen XuanPhuc and high-level officials of Hai Phong City and other provinces.

Incoming international air routes

Speaking at the event, Dang Tat Thang - Permanent Vice Chairman of Bamboo Airways expressed his appreciation for the strong support from the government, who have consistently pursued the open-sky policy for the past several years, such as overseas visits by the Prime Minister and senior government leaders and specific measures to promote trade between countries of the Vietnamese government.

“During the official visit to the Czech Republic, owing to the dedicated support of the Prime Minister and related ministries and departments, Bamboo Airways was able to hold the MoU signing event to open a direct route connecting Vietnam and the Czech Republic", said Thang.

He said Cat Bi International Airport was an important aviation gateway of strategic significance for the economy, defence and transportation of Hai Phong in particular and the northern region in general.

Combined with tourism projects to be developed in Hai Phong by the group, the three new air routes were expected to help attract more visitors to the city and nearby destinations.

Leaders of Hai Phong, FLC Group and Bamboo Airways present flowers to passengers.

Speaking at the event, Chairman of Hai Phong People's Committee Nguyen Van Tung said beside ensuring flight safety, quality, efficiency and punctuality, Bamboo Airways should continue researching and opening more domestic and international flights from Hai Phong to destinations such as Japan and South Korea.

“We propose FLC Group invest in logistics facilities at the airport, in compliance with plans approved by the Prime Minister," he said.

There will be one round-trip flight per day for each of the three routes.

Bamboo Airways plans to build a network of flights connecting Hai Phong’s Cat Bi International Airport with domestic airports including the central coastal city of Da Nang, Phu Quoc island in the southern province of Kien Giang as well as international ones such as Bangkok - Thailand, Singapore, Seoul - the Republic of Korea, Siem Reap – Cambodia.

40 air routes in 2019

This is the effort of Bamboo Airways aiming at conducting flights on 37-40 domestic and international air routes this year.

Last month, Bamboo Airways have made international flights to the Republic of Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

It strives to expand its fleets to 40 aircraft by the end of this year, including the narrow-body Airbus A321 Neo and wide-body Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

By the end of April 2019, Bamboo Airways have conducted nearly 4,000 flights with the rate of punctuality being nearly 93 percent, the highest in the aviation sector. This year, the airline aims to increase the frequency of daily flights to 100 per day, serving 5 million passengers.VNS