Vietnam Airlines will double its number flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Tokyo to 14 per week from March 28, the state-owned carrier's representative office in Japan has said.

Airbus A321-200 planes with 168 economy seats and 16 business seats will be used on the new flights.

Flights between Hanoi and Osaka are also expected to go up from five to seven a week from July 1 given the anticipation that Japanese tourism to Hanoi could surge this year.

The increases will bring the number of flights between Vietnam and Japan by Vietnam Airlines to 43 per week, accounting for 50 percent of market share of flights from Japan to Vietnam.

Together with a route between Hanoi and Myanmar's Yangon City to be opened on March 2, the moves would also help Vietnam become a convenient transfer point for Japanese passengers from Vietnam to fly to other Southeast Asian countries.

(Source : Thanhnien)