Vietnam and India will open direct flights between the two countries this November as part of a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Vietnam Airlines and India’s Jet Airways in Hanoi on Monday.

 

 

 

Pham Ngoc Minh (R), Chief Executive Officer of Vietnam Airlines, and Naresh Goyal, Chairman of India’s Jet Airways, exchange documents of an agreement to open direct flights between the two countries this November.

The MoU was signed by representatives from the two airlines in the presence of President Truong Tan Sang and his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee during a four-day official visit to Vietnam that began Sunday.

“We will be beginning the operations starting November 5 with a direct daily flight connecting Delhi and Mumbai to Ho Chi Minh City,” Indian news agency Press Trust of India quoted Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal as saying after signing the deal.

Mr Goyal said the flights are already accepting bookings, according to PTI.

Under the MoU, Vietnam Airlines and Jet Airways will continue to expand their codeshare cooperation to offer guests more convenient connecting flights between India and Vietnam through the international gateways of Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong via the combined networks of both airlines, Vietnam Airlines said in a release.

In addition, the two airlines also committed to coordinate closely in trade promotion activities to promote direct air services between the two countries.

Air services agreement between the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Government of the Republic of India signed on November 20th 2013. Designated airline of Vietnam is Vietnam Airlines. Meanwhile, the Indian government has designated the airline Spice Jet and Jet Airways to operate regular flights to Vietnam. May 8th 2014, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has granted permission for Jet Airways to operate regular flights from winter schedule 2014/2015 on the route Bangkok-New Delhi- Ho Chi Minh City-Bangkok-New Delhi.   Vietnam Airlines is planning to operate direct flights between the two countries from May 2015.

(Resource: caa.gov.vn)