VNA, VietJetAir resume flights to Hue’s airport

>> Hue reopens upgraded airport

On the first day of flight resumption, Vietnam Airlines had five flights to the former imperial capital of Hue from HCMC and Hanoi, and VietJetAir had two from HCMC.

Phu Bai Airport’s reopening was two months ahead of schedule.

After the upgrade, the terminal of Phu Bai Airport has three more gates and can handle larger aircraft like Boeing 737 and Airbus A321 with dozens of flights a day.

During the airport closure, prices of tours to Hue increased as travel firms had to cover additional costs of transport from Danang to Hue.

The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Thua Thien-Hue Province has previously offered a travel stimulus program lasting until Wednesday with several direct discounts for tourists such as room rate reductions, free services, promotional entry tickets to historical monuments and free traditional musical performances.

The number of tourists visiting Hue in January-July rose by 3% year-on-year to over one million with those coming from other countries accounting for around 400,000.

* Vietnam Airlines has said it will begin adding four weekly flights on the HCMC-Incheon run and five weekly flights on the Hanoi-Pusan service from October 28.

The HCMC-Incheon route will have a total of 11 services a week from the current seven while Hanoi-Pusan weekly flights will number 12 from the present seven. These extra services are to meet rising travel demand of local visitors, especially in the fall in Korea.

Vietnam Airlines now is the only local air carrier operating direct flights between Vietnam and South Korea’s Seoul and Pusan. Besides increasing flight frequencies, Vietnam Airlines offers a discount of up to 29% for customers purchasing tickets at least two weeks before departure on the HCMC-Seoul route with the price starting from US$320 a person, equivalent to VND6.81 million.

The national carrier also offers a discount of 22% for customers buying tickets at least seven days before departure at the starting price of US$350 a person or around VND7.45 million.

Similarly, South Korean visitors flying from HCMC to Seoul from now to the end of March can enjoy a discount of 36%, with the price starting from US$288 a person or VND6.13 million, should they purchase tickets at least two weeks before departure.

Vietnam welcomed about 65,100 Korean visitors last month, a sharp rise of 122.3% month-on-month, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism reports. The number of Korean visitors to the country totaled roughly 504,200 in the first eight months of the year, growing 105% over the same period in 2012, according to the tourism authority.