As the number of airlines opening their new air routes to and from Vietnam has continuously increasing, a Finnish carrier ‘Finnair’ made its official presence in the Vietnamese market by opening representative offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in the beginning of this month, choosing Bien Don Travel firm as the general agent.
Finnair is the member of One World, the international airline alliance which provides more than 800 flights daily to 149 countries. The presence of Finnair in Vietnam marks a milestone in the development of the air carrier’s plan to expand the air routes to South East Asia.
South East Asia Business Director of Finnair, Retteri Kostemaa, said that 65 percent of the total turnover of Finnair comes from 11 destination points in Asia and Vietnam is one the most important markets.
He said that the airline is considering opening a direct route from Helsinki to Vietnam in the near future. The airline will also cooperate with other airlines such as Vietnam Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Jetstar to create transit points, connecting with the airline’s flights to Helsinki and other domestic destinations in Finland and 60 other European destinations.
The Vietnamese market has a relatively high growth rate where it witnessed the growth rate of 14 percent, according to Deputy Head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) Lai Xuan Thanh.
The International Air Transport Association IATA has predicted that Vietnam would become the third fastest growing cargo and passenger carrying market in the world by 2014, just behind China and Brazil.
It is expected that the Vietnamese market would have 34-36 million passengers by 2015 and 52-59 million passengers by 2019. Meanwhile, the cargo transport would see a rapid increase to 850,000-930,000 tons by 2015 and 1.4-1.6 million tons by 2019.
