~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

[Year 1997]
[Year 1998]
[Year 1999]
[Year 2000]
[Year 2001]

Vietnam Airlines launches Trans-Indochina service

BANGKOK - A newly-inaugurated Vietnam Airlines route though all the old capitals of French Indochina plus Ho Chi Minh City should help develop tourism in the area, the airline's general manager in Laos said. A ceremony to mark the first flight on the new route was held Sunday at the Wattay Airport in Vientiane, the Laotian state news agency reported Monday.

The flight took off from the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, and landed in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, en route to the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, and returning to Vietnam to terminate in the country's commercial hub, Ho Chi Minh City, in the south. Vietnam Airlines will fly the route each week Tuesday, Friday and Sunday with a Fokker 70 or an Airbus 320, KPL reported.

"By this new route, Vietnam Airlines contributes to the development of tourism in this region and also expands the economic relations between our three countries, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia," KPL quoted Vu Manh Cuong, general manager of Vietnam Airlines in Vientiane, as saying. He said that the tour operators would also benefit from the new route, making it easier to combine tours to Laos and Cambodia from Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.

Associated Press - October 30, 2000.