Vietjet Air urged to run direct flight from AP to Vietnam

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Federation (AP Chambers) in a letter to the CEO of Vietjet Air requested to introduce direct flight connectivity between Andhra Pradesh and Vietnam.

AP Chambers president Potluri Bhaskara Rao stated, “Andhra Pradesh is an agro-based State and is the leading producer of cereals, pulses, food processing, shrimp farming and primary processing, spices, cotton yarn, auto components, bulk pharma drugs.

Vietnam imports most of these products for further value addition in order to export to other countries. Shrimp is primarily processed in AP and exported to Vietnam for further value addition. Similarly, the yarn produced in AP is exported to Vietnam and textiles are made in Vietnam. “Vietnam is a very popular tourist destination for the people of Andhra Pradesh and it is estimated around 30 per cent of four lakh tourists visiting Vietnam from India are from AP. The students from AP are opting for Vietnam for higher studies like Medicine, Agri Farming and others and the trend will further pick up if there is a direct flight from Andhra Pradesh,” he said.

AP Chambers president further said, “Since Vietnam is an affordable tourist destination (4 to 5 hrs travel time), the tourism from AP will tremendously improve if a direct flight is introduced from Andhra Pradesh, either from Visakhapatnam or Vijayawada. Both the cities have international airports with all facilities. International tourism has tremendously increased from the State over the years as there is a huge affluent population in the region.”

As Vietjet Air operates almost 35 departures per week from India, Bhaskar Rao recalled that AP Chambers requested a direct flight with two departures per week some time ago. “The proposed FTA (Free Trade Agreement) between India and Vietnam will further boost the travel between Andhra Pradesh and Vietnam and in view of the huge potential the AP Chambers requested Vietjet Air to consider introducing a direct flight between Andhra Pradesh and Vietnam.