Expanding global flight network and Vietnam Airlines' expectation of being number 2 in Southeast Asia

With the goal of welcoming 22-23 million international visitors in 2025 of the Vietnamese tourism industry, the contribution of airlines plays a very important role in realizing this goal. Vietnam Airlines - the national airline has "spread its wings to fly high" to many new international destinations continuously in recent times to increase coverage and market share for the new period.

Strong recovery and expansion

In 2024 and early 2025, Vietnam Airlines has strongly recovered its international flight network, both in terms of the number of routes and operating results. The airline has opened 13 new routes, bringing the total number of international routes to 69, reaching 37 destinations in 21 countries - this is an unprecedented rapid network expansion compared to the pre-pandemic period.

Most recently, on July 2, Vietnam Airlines and Saudia officially entered into a codeshare agreement to enhance connectivity for passengers traveling between Vietnam and Saudi Arabia, including benefits from frequent flyer programs, contributing to improving service quality and flight experience value.

According to the agreement, Vietnam Airlines' flights in cooperation with Saudia will display Saudia's flight number (code SV), and vice versa, flights operated by Saudia will also carry Vietnam Airlines' flight number (code VN).

Passengers from Vietnam can easily travel from Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City to Jeddah and Riyadh with just one booking and check-in, opening up opportunities to explore the Middle East more conveniently than ever. Vietnam Airlines Golden Lotus Plus members can accumulate flight miles and use bonus miles to redeem award tickets when flying with other airlines in the SkyTeam alliance.

In 2024, the number of visitors traveling between Vietnam and Saudi Arabia will reach more than 20,000, an increase of 64% compared to the previous year, showing strong growth potential in the aviation and tourism sectors. In addition, the electronic visa (e-visa) policy for Vietnamese citizens for the purposes of tourism, conferences, and family visits is simplified and approved quickly, contributing to reducing procedures and travel preparation time. This is also part of the Saudi Vision 2030 Strategy, aiming to promote tourism and international exchanges, especially with dynamic markets like Vietnam.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Trung, Head of Planning and Development Department of Vietnam Airlines said: “The agreement with Saudia marks a strategic step in the journey to expand Vietnam Airlines' international flight network, especially to the Middle East - a potential market with impressive growth in tourism and aviation”.

Previously, the Hanoi - Milan (Italy) route was also officially opened, with a frequency of 3 round trips/week. Milan is the second largest economic center of Italy and an important gateway to the Southwest Europe region. This city will act as a strategic gateway in Vietnam Airlines' flight network, helping passengers conveniently access destinations across Europe.

The new route will facilitate the promotion of two-way traffic between Vietnam and Italy in particular, while strengthening Vietnam Airlines' market share on routes between Vietnam and European countries. According to data from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Italy is a country in the top 10 best-growing markets in 2024, with the number of visitors increasing by 155% compared to 2023. The lack of a third-country transfer will help enhance the experience, while creating momentum for a breakthrough increase in the number of visitors from Italy to Vietnam in the coming years.

Thus, in the first half of 2025, the airline opened 6 new international routes to Beijing, Bangkok, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Busan and Bali, and restored 3 important routes to Moscow, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. Two key routes to Milan and Copenhagen will be operated from July and December this year, respectively.

As an airline accounting for more than 50% of the domestic market share, Vietnam Airlines has determined its orientation to become the top 2 airline in Southeast Asia in terms of scale, entering the top 10 most popular airlines in Asia, maintaining 4-star service standards and aiming to reach international 5-star standards, so the expansion of international routes, increasing the size of the fleet... have been specifically prepared to achieve the set goals.

Significantly improve international exploitation efficiency

At the General Meeting of Shareholders at the end of June, Vietnam Airlines leaders said that on some routes, passenger volume and seat utilization ratio still have room for improvement. The main reasons come from competition in ticket prices, changes in travel habits after the pandemic, and the longer low season in some markets. However, by understanding this rule, the airline has implemented many synchronous solutions:

Increase sales of transit passengers (franchise 6): Transit passenger output in 2024 increases by 13%, revenue increases by 16% compared to 2023; flexible in pricing policy: proactively open sales according to market segments, adjust prices according to seasons, promote offset sales to optimize seat utilization ratio, especially in low season.

On the other hand, the airline promotes the market: Combining product introduction programs, trade incentives, flexible seat prices, helping to improve the efficiency of each flight route. At the same time, expanding international sales cooperation: Vietnam Airlines has cooperated with many global partners such as Expedia, Trip.com, American Express... and will continue to expand with big names such as Agoda, Traveloka, BCD in 2025 to increase coverage and sales.

Vietnam Airlines and Saudia officially cooperate in codeshare.

These solutions have helped to clearly improve exploitation efficiency, in which the number of international visitors to Vietnam in the first 5 months of 2025 increased by an average of more than 6% over the same period.

Faced with increasing competitive pressure from major domestic and international airlines on international routes, Vietnam Airlines determined that only extremely flexible solutions, tight risk prevention and optimized fleet performance, new products could increase its solid presence in the international aviation market, approaching the top 2 position in Southeast Asia as expected.

Source: https://thesaigontimes.vn/mo-rong-mang-bay-toan-cau-va-ky-vong-so-2-dong-nam-a-cua-vietnam-airlines/