Air Mekong finally flies to Da Nang, Da Lat

The start-up Vietnam Aviation Joint-Stock Co (Air Mekong) finally commenced services to Da Nang and Da Lat on Tuesday, more than two weeks later than its original schedule as approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam.

The aviation authority told with the Daily on the phone on Tuesday that Air Mekong got approval to conduct flights to Da Nang and Da Lat from November 16. Truong Thanh Vu, director of commercial service at the private carrier, said the airline operated two flights from HCM City and one service from Hanoi to Da Nang every day.

Vu said Air Mekong also flew daily between HCM City and Hanoi via Da Lat, a resort city in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong. With these new routes, the airline has increased the number of daily domestic flights departing from HCM City and Hanoi to 32.

Earlier this month, Air Mekong announced it was not able to begin its services from Hanoi and HCM City to Da Nang and Da Lat from October 31 as it previously planned. Air Mekong explained the carrier needed more time for preparations, but the aviation watchdog attributed the postponement to low demand based on the report submitted by the airline.

Air Mekong reported an average load factor of 60 percent or higher for the flights in the airports in the two major cities of Vietnam, HCM City and Hanoi; Da Nang in the central region; Da Lat, Pleiku and Buon Ma Thuot in the Central Highlands; Phu Quoc and Con Dao offshore southern Vietnam. – Saigon Times

Tags: Air Mekong, Vietnam aviation market

Posted by VBN on Nov 19 2010. Filed under Aviation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry