Flights between Can Tho and Bangkok suspended

Flights between Can Tho and Bangkok suspended

The first flight from Bangkok to Can Tho City was on July 21 this year. Flights between the two countries were suspended yesterday. — Photo vietnamplus.vn

CAN THO (VNS) — Flights between Viet Nam’s southern Can Tho City and Bangkok were suspended yesterday as they were struggling to make money, Director of Vietravel company’s southwest region Truong Van Vinh said.

The flight route had been launched a little more than two weeks ago.

Leading tourism company Vietravel, together with the Can Tho City government and Thai VietJet Air had launched the first flight on July 21 to promote Thailand among Vietnamese people in the Mekong Delta on a trial basis.

The service ended with the last flight being operated yesterday, Vinh said.

He said it was a loss-making route as the high season for travel had ended.

“During the trial period, there was an increase in the number of passengers from Can Tho to Bangkok, but a heavy fall in the number of passengers from Bangkok to Can Tho,” he said.

Vinh said the service could be resumed during the Lunar New Year in February next year or in summer 2016, to serve people in the region.

The one-way airfare for the route was VND2.69 million (US$128).

Can Tho, about 170km southwest of HCM City, is Viet Nam’s fourth largest city. Its airport is the largest in the Mekong Delta.

The airport handled more than 225,000 passengers in the first six months of this year, a 72 per cent annual increase, but far lower than its designed capacity of three million passengers per year.

Last year, 560,000 tourists from Viet Nam visited Thailand, making them the fourth largest group from the Asean region after Malaysians, Laotians and Singaporeans, the Thai Tourism Department said. — VNS

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