Vietnam's Air Mekong to starts flights next month

Hanoi: Mekong Aviation Joint-Stock Co., a Vietnamese private air carrier that has partnered with Skywest Inc., will start flights from October, offering routes to popular tourist destinations in the country.

Air Mekong, as it is also known, will start servicing eight routes from October 9 and increase the number to 10 routes from November, the airline said in a statement yesterday. The company will use four CRJ-900 aircraft produced by Montreal-based Bombardier Inc., the world's third-largest commercial planemaker.

Air Mekong will be partly owned by Skywest, Chairman Doan Quoc Viet said in a press conference. The US airline hopes to take a 30 per cent stake in the Vietnamese carrier, Viet said.

The airline's destinations will include the islands of Phu Quoc and Con Dao in southern Vietnam, and Pleiku and Da Lat in the central highlands.

"We hope to raise our competitiveness with these new products," Viet said.

The new routes will help meet domestic demand for air transportation, which is expected to "increase in the coming years," according to Luu Thanh Binh, deputy head of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam.