Vietnam Airlines and Turkish Airlines have signed a memorandum of understanding that includes the potential codeshare for passenger flights between Vietnam and Turkey. The two carriers told the media that the agreement signed at the Farnborough International Airshow in the UK, would “strengthen bilateral cooperation” and promote “economic, cultural and social exchanges.”
Le Hong Ha, Vietnam Airlines’ president and CEO said the partnership with Turkish Airlines will bring great benefits to passengers, and promote aviation connectivity, and economic and cultural exchanges among Vietnam, Turkey, and the Middle East region. “This is also Vietnam Airlines' effort to strengthen global cooperation, expand the route network, recover the economy after the pandemic and seize new development opportunities,” he added.
Furthermore, the flag carriers will launch a codeshare partnership in the field of cargo, which is expected to take effect in 2023.
The MoU between SkyTeam member Vietnam Airlines and Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines will explore the potential for codeshares on passenger routes between Istanbul (IST) and Hanoi (HAN) and Ho Chi Minh City (SGN).
Levent Konukcu, Turkish Airlines’ chief investment and technology officer, said that after recovering from the impact of the global pandemic, the aviation sector became aware of the crucial need for cooperation. “We attach importance to expanding our cooperation with Vietnam Airlines both in passenger and cargo.”
At the current time, TK serves both HAN and SGN from IST twice a week using Boeing 777-300ERs and 787-9s, respectively.
Vietnam Airlines resume flights to more countries
Now that the world is almost back to how it used to be and we’re seeing more routes operational again, Vietnam Airlines is not wasting time. In addition to the TK partnership, VN has announced just a week ago that it is planning to resume several routes linking with destinations in Asia, Europe, and Australia from this month.
Similarly, after the launch of SGN-San Francisco in November 2021, Vietnam Airlines is now looking to launch a Los Angeles service. The flag carrier is also looking to expand its post-pandemic route network in India. On June 15, Vietnam Airlines officially launched non-stop flights connecting Vietnam and India. The first flight VN5025 from Hanoi to New Delhi landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport at 14:25 on June 15 (local time).
The airline is also set to resume routes to Australia’s Sydney and Melbourne, Japan’s Tokyo, and Thailand’s Bangkok. Meanwhile, destinations in Europe include Germany’s Frankfurt and London. The airline said all the above international flights will use its most modern wide-body aircraft, Boeing 787 and Airbus A350.
Nguyen Quoc Phuong, executive vice president and in charge of ACV Business and Market Development, said at the Routes Asia event that Vietnam's skies are now entirely accessible to the rest of the world as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that every cooperation set by any carrier to any destination will drastically increase air traffic volumes in the country.