• New direct route from Hanoi
• Service will generate an incremental $62 million in inbound visitor spend each year
• Supports popular visiting family and friends market and holiday destination

Sydney Airport today welcomed a new direct Vietnam Airlines service from Hanoi.

The three-weekly service will be operated on a 274-seat Boeing 787-9, adding 85,000 seats annually.

Sydney Airport Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Kerrie Mather said the new service provided additional capacity as demand for travel to and from Vietnam continued to increase.

“More than 240,000 passengers travelled between Sydney and Vietnam in 2016, and we’re delighted this new service will provide more choice for this growing market,” Ms Mather said.

“With about 40% of Australia’s Vietnamese born residents living in NSW, the service will make an important contribution to supporting the visiting family and friends market.

“Hanoi’s colonial architecture and rich sense of history also makes it the ideal holiday destination for Australian travellers.”

The new route is expected to deliver an incremental $62 million in inbound visitor expenditure to Australia annually. Vietnam Airlines General Manager Hung Truong said he was proud to launch the Hanoi-Sydney service, with the airline now offering 17 flights per week to Australia.

“The new service will increase capacity to meet growing tourism, business and trade demand, as well as contributing toward the development of the relationship between Australia and Vietnam,” Mr Truong said.

“The service means better connection times to Northeast Asia as well as Europe, allowing Vietnam Airlines to connect Australian travellers to more of the world.

“Passengers can enjoy our new generation aircraft, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, on all flights from Australia to Vietnam and beyond, with the aircraft operating three luxury cabins of service, business, premium economy and economy class.”

NSW Minister for Tourism and Major Events Adam Marshall welcomed the new Hanoi-Sydney service. “We are experiencing an exciting time for tourism in NSW, with Sydney and rural and regional areas experiencing strong international visitor growth, including visitors from Vietnam,” Mr Marshall said.

“In 2016 NSW welcomed 32,000 visitors from Vietnam, which was up 27% on 2015. Between them, those visitors injected $162 million in overnight visitor expenditure into the state’s economy, which again was an 11% increase on the year prior.

“Sydney remains the number one destination for overseas visitors to Australia, and the NSW Government is investing at record levels in tourism to achieve our goal of doubling overnight expenditure by 2020.”

Vietnam Airlines is part of the SkyTeam Alliance and was the second airline in the world to operate both next-generation aircraft, the Boeing 787-9 and Airbus 350, at the same time. It was named a SkyTrax certified 4-star airline in 2016, and also operates a daily Ho Chi Minh City – Sydney service.

Flight schedule (all times local):

Hanoi (to commence 29 March 2017)

VN787 departs Hanoi on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday at 2355, arrives in Sydney at 1315 (AEDT) the next day

VN786 departs Sydney on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 1515 (AEDT), arrives in Hanoi 2050