4 October 2023
After 22 years hiatus, Vietnam Airlines is returning back to Manila beginning December 1, for flights to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, departing at NAIA's Terminal1.
The flight will be flown by Airbus A321 with thrice weekly services to Hanoi and quad weekly services to Ho Chi Minh under the following published schedules:
Hanoi – Manila eff 02DEC23 3 weekly A321
VN647 HAN0005 – 0420MNL 321 246
VN646 MNL0520 – 0735HAN 321 246
Ho Chi Minh City – Manila eff 01DEC23 4 weekly A321
VN649 SGN0050 – 0420MNL 321 x246
VN648 MNL0520 – 0650SGN 321 x246
The resumption of flight services to Manila are still code-shared with Philippine Airlines. Vietnam Airlines last served Manila in November 7, 2001 as its operation in the country was adversely affected by the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
I remember the ad being played by Vietnam Airlines in Discovery Channel in the early 2000's. "Light as a cloud, Vietnam Airlines." At first I thought the ad was about a Chinese airline because of the music and the depictions of the scenery, the salakot hats and the Mandarins (or monks) walking outside a temple. Then I learned later that Vietnam is part of the so-called Sinosphere along with Japan and Korea that's why, and is the only country in SE Asia to be so. The Vietnamese language even used to write in Chinese characters (called chữ Hán, supplemented by their own native script called chữ Nôm), similar to Japan's Kanji and Korea's Hanja.
ReplyDeletePAL could also codeshare with Vietnam if they want to launch flights to CDG or FRA. Although there is already talk at the French Embassy of AF launching flights to MNL using 787-9.
any source about AF going back to manila? that would be great just in case, although KLM already flies here and needs to stop at TPE, so this seems unlikely
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