Air India to become the second Indian carrier to fly to Vietnam

Air India has opened the reservation of its flights to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), formerly Saigon from Delhi, effective June 01, 2024. The airline will operate five times a week flights and deploy the A320neo on this route, which is configured with 12 Business and 150 Economy class seats. The timings are as below

AI388 DEL1315 – 1955SGN

AI389 SGN2055 – 0030 (+1)DEL

Flights will operate on Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat and Sun.

This will make Air India, the second Indian carrier to operate flights to Vietnam, where IndiGo operates daily departures to Hanoi and HCMC from Kolkata. THere currently are 57 flights a week between India and Vietnam with 14 being operated by IndiGo, while VietJet operates 29 flights a week and Vietnam Airlines 14 weekly flights. This will go up by five as Air India starts its flight.

India Vietnam market

For the last quarter of 2023, the Delhi – HCMC market was the strongest amongst all city pairs between India and Vietnam, clocking over 200 passengers per day each way on non-stop flights. Many passengers fly via Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore which offer competitive fares on connecting flights or club holidays to either of these places. 

Data released by DGCA shows that 91380 passengers flew non-stop to Vietnam in Q4-CY23. VietJet took 47322 passengers or nearly 52% of all non-stop traffic between India and Vietnam. Vietnam Airlines carried 14182 passengers or 15.5% of all traffic, which implies that IndiGo carried a little over 30% of that traffic. 

There has been a battle of sorts for passengers between India and Vietnam with the new found destination becoming popular rapidly amongst Indians.IndiGo had taken the lead in starting non-stop flights to Vietnam in 2019, followed by rejigging the hub. The connectivity was derailed during COVID times, but was back when regular international services were allowed. There was a barrage of flights from VietJet which included flights from Danang and Phu Quoc, which made a hasty exit. This was followed by Vietnam Airlines entering the market with the A350s, also making a hasty replacement of aircraft.

The current air connectivity is as below

Delhi – Hanoi

• VietJet: 3x weekly
• Vietnam Airlines: 4x weekly

Delhi – Ho Chi Minh City

• VietJet: 4x weekly
• Vietnam Airlines: 3x weekly

Mumbai – Hanoi

• VietJet: 3x weekly
• Vietnam Airlines: 4x weekly

Mumbai – Ho Chi Minh City

• VietJet: 4x weekly
• Vietnam Airlines: 3x weekly

Kolkata – Hanoi

• IndiGo – Daily

Kolkata – Ho Chi Minh City

• IndiGo – Daily

VietJet operates to other cities in India as below

• Ahmedabad – Hanoi, 4x weekly
• Ahmedabad – HCMC, Daily
• Kochi – HCMC, 4x weekly

The airline recently pulled out from Tiruchirapalli.

Why Ho Chi MInh City?

Ho Chi Minh City may not be the capital of Vietnam but it is the most populous city in Vietnam. It also attracts significant tourist traffic and is an economic powerhouse as a region within Vietnam. It is dotted with historic sights, both pre-war and from the french era. 

The airport still sports the pre-war code SGN denoting Saigon, its old name. Saigon was the capital of South Vietnam. The airport is the busiest in Vietnam and a hub for the local carriers. 

The timings by Air India allow for two way connectivity to London and USA, but leading to very long layovers on flights to Europe. This could change to places like Frankfurt and Paris with the integration of Vistara and possible second bank of flights to Europe. 

Network Thoughts

Air India wants to expand rapidly and has 470 aircraft on order. This addition makes it the second in Southeast Asia after Phuket for the carrier. The timings are more aligned towards its own flight connections and not harsh for the traveller from India. IndiGo has focused on red eye flights from Kolkata which aims to route all traffic to Vietnam via Kolkata. The two Vietnamese carriers are operating the typical Southeast Asian carriers to India, leaving around evening time from home country, landing at night in India and reaching back at breakfast time back home. 

The swaps between Air India and Air India Express indicate that the routes with international to international connections are being focused on by Air India while large Origin – Destination markets, from both metro and Tier II cities are seeing Air India Express rule the routes. 

All eyes now shift to the announcement on where the A350 gets deployed on international routes? Any guesses?

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