Vietnam's new discount airline to offer tickets for a dollar
HANOI - Vietnam's Pacific Airlines will offer 50,000 discount tickets as low as one dollar on routes between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as well as flights to Taiwan, local media reported Saturday.
The promotion is intended to relaunch Pacific Airlines as a budget alternative to national carrier Vietnam Airlines, according to Thanh Nien newspaper.
Pacific Airlines would begin selling the promotional e-tickets priced from 15,000 dong (1 dollar) to 500,000 dong (about 31 dollars) on its website www.pacificairlines.com.vn starting February 13.
The discount tickets would apply to flights in March between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and central Danang, airline director Luong Hoai Nam told the paper.
Flights to Taipei and Kaohsiung from Ho Chi Minh City would also be included in the promotion.
Pacific also has plans to expand its routes this year to Hong Kong, Siem Reap and Bangkok as well as the Vietnamese cities Hue and Nha Trang, the report said.
Deutsche Presse Agentur - February 3, 2007.
Vietnam’s Pacific set to become no-frills carrier
Pacific Airlines’s makeover as a budget carrier will be complete Feb. 13 from which date it will sell Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City tickets for as low as US$1.
Its general director, Luong Hoai Nam, said initially the low fares would only apply on flights between Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City, and the two international routes from HCMC to Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan.
He told a customers conference in Hanoi Friday that the airline would offer 50,000 tickets at VND15,000 to VND500,000 ($31.2) on all routes from March.
E-tickets only
Pacific Airlines, which aims to carry 8 million passengers annually, will no longer sell paper tickets after it starts implementing e-ticketing nationwide from Feb 13.
The tickets can be booked from agents or on the airline’s website at www.pacificairlines.com.vn.
Nam said in the initial phase the carrier would allow cash payment since cards were not popular in Vietnam.
Pacific plans to open some more routes this year, all from Ho Chi Minh City, to Hue, Nha Trang, Hong Kong, Siem Reap, and Bangkok.
Three foreign no-frills airlines now fly into Vietnam – Singapore-based Tiger Airways and Thai AirAsia, and Australia’s Jetstar.
By Tran Hung - Thanh Nien - February 3, 2007.
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