Australia’s busiest gateway, Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport, welcomed its 50th airline on Thursday following the inaugural flight of Vietnamese low-cost carrier (LCC) VietJet.
Using a 377-seat Airbus A330-300, VietJet will initially operate three nonstop flights per week, connecting Sydney to Ho Chi Minh City on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Sydney will run Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
The new route comes after VietJet touched down in Australia for the first time last week, becoming the fourth Vietnamese carrier to launch service between Ho Chi Minh City and Melbourne. The LCC now operates thrice-weekly flights using an A330 while twice-weekly Brisbane service will be added in June. Expansion plans include flights to Adelaide, Canberra, and Perth and launching daily service to Sydney and Melbourne in 2024.
Led by Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Vietnam’s sole female billionaire, VietJet is the country’s largest private carrier. It operates an all-Airbus fleet that includes 38 Airbus A321s, 19 A321neos, 18 Airbus A320ceos, and five A330-300 widebodies. The LCC has ordered 20 Airbus A321XLRs along with 106 Boeing 737 Max 10s, 66 Max 8s, and 28 Max 200s.
VietJet’s Max 200 order stems from two deals made in 2016 and 2019 with a combined value of more than $24 billion based on list prices. The carrier expects to take deliveries between 2024 to 2028 with the first 50 bound for VietJet’s Thai subsidiary.
In preparation, Thai VietJet, a VietJet subsidiary, announced a dramatic fleet restructuring last month that calls for the carrier to operate an all-Boeing fleet by 2027. It expects delivery of its first 737 Max 8 jet in July 2024. The subsidiary has begun to shift its network to reflect a sharper focus on international operations, as it plans to increase international available seat kilometers (ASK) by 35 percent by year-end.
Separately, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam predicts a recovery to 2019 levels by year-end, with roughly 80 million passengers carried, including 34 million international travelers. Last year, the nation’s airports handled around 55 million passengers, or about 69.6 percent of 2019 levels.