Air Mekong to sell fares online from Thursday

Vietnam’s private airline Air Mekong has loaded airfares on its website on Thursday for its domestic flights departing from October, with a one-way fare starting from 400,000 dong (US$20.5).

Truong Thanh Vu, director of commercial service at Air Mekong, told the Daily on the phone on Wednesday after the airline held a press conference in Hanoi to announce its air routes that the 400,000 dong was for a single trip from HCM City to Con Dao, Phu Quoc, Pleiku and Buon Ma Thuot from October 9. Other fare levels are 800,000 dong and 1.2 million dong for longer-haul services.

Initially, guests can book Air Mekong’s fares on its website at www.airmekong.vn and its ticketing office at the Syrena building in Hanoi on Thursday and a ticketing counter at Tan Son Nhat Airport on Friday. They are allowed to use Visa, MasterCard, JCB and Amex credit cards, ATM debit cards and cash to pay online or at ticketing counters.

Vu said 12 types of ticket would also be available for sale at nearly 200 agents in cities and provinces of Vietnam.

Air Mekong will use four three-year-old Bombardier CRJ-900s configured with 10 Deluxe-class and 80 Economy-class seats for 26 daily flights. Vu said the start-up carrier would increase its daily frequencies to 34 flights on 10 air routes in November, a time when demand for air travel begins to pick up within Vietnam.

The airline will conduct four services between HCM City and the resort island of Phu Quoc, two on each of the HCM City-Hanoi and HCM City-Con Dao routes. Vu said the carrier would offer passengers various options to fly between HCM City and Hanoi via a stopover in Pleiku, Buon Ma Thuot or Da Lat in the Central Highlands region.

The routes via a stopover will be exploited only by Air Mekong.

“This differentiates us from other airlines. Our new routes will stimulate new demand for air travel, and at the same time we focus on the routes on which the demand has not been fully met,” Vu said.

Business and leisure travellers are among Air Mekong’s target passengers. Vu said Air Mekong was operating as a traditional airline, so it would serve guests foods and drinks aboard all the flights.

Air Mekong will be the country’s sole operational private airline since Indochina Airlines was grounded in late October. Other passenger carriers currently in service are Vietnam Airlines and its subsidiary Vietnam Air Service Co (Vasco) and Jetstar Pacific. – Saigon Times

Tags: Air Mekong, Vietnam aviation, Vietnam aviation industry, Vietnam aviation market