SINGAPORE, 4 December 2019: Vietjet will start daily flights to Pattaya from its Ho Chi Minh City base effective 23 December.
It will fly to U-Tapao International Airport located on the Gulf of Thailand coast, 35 km south of Pattaya City and just short of 200 km from Bangkok.
With a flight time of one hour and 30 minutes, the new service will depart Ho Chi Minh City at 1325 and arrive in U-tapao airport at 1440. The return flight from U-tapao will depart at 1125 and arrive in Ho Chi Minh City at 1255.
To celebrate the new route, Vietjet is promoting its tried and test zero cost fares claiming there are 100,000 tickets available from now until 5 December 2019.
Passengers still have to pay fee and taxes on the so-called free tickets, but the sales window usually shuts within a couple of days of the launch and is often limited to just a couple of hours each day during the lunch break.
The free tickets are on sale on other routes besides Pattaya – Ho Chi Minh City. They apply on all flights from Dalat, Danang and Taichung (Taiwan) to Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi); from Ho Chi Minh City to Pattaya (U-Tapao International Airport); and all of Thailand’s domestic routes from Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi) to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phuket, Krabi, Udon Thani, including the Phuket – Chiang Rai and Udon Thani – Chiang Rai routes.
The travel period for the promotional tickets is from 23 December 2019 to 24 October 2020 (**). Bookings must be made directly on the airline’s website.
The new service gives Vietjet eight direct routes between Thailand and Vietnam. It includes services from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Danang, Haiphong and Dalat to Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi) and services from Ho Chi Minh City to Phuket, Chiang Mai and U-Tapao.
Its latest route should boost tourist traffic between Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces of Vietnam to Thailand’s Rayong and Pattaya coastal region. However, creating enough demand to keep the flight going daily year-round will be a challenge. Pattaya hotels report declines in leisure travel to the coastal resort town, but they are hoping investments on the eastern seaboard will give Pattaya a foothold as a business and events destination.
