New destination from Changi : Phu Quoc

[MAN Flyer]

A mate of mine in Vietnam told me about this a while ago and I thought he was going mad, but it appears to be true.

Strange to see them jump straight in with an A321, but it's only twice a week initially. I wonder how it will do. The Vietnamese Government have been considering giving Phu Quoc a visa requirement exemption, which would be strange if they kept it for other parts of the country with just 2 weekly international flights. But, this is Vietnam, and they really get don't how much they are losing with the silly visa requirements, instead thinking they are benefitting from the odd $40 fees....

Vietnam Airlines from 02NOV14 plans to introduce new service to Singapore, with 2 weekly Phu Quoc – Singapore operation, on board Airbus A321 aircraft. This is set to be the first regular scheduled International service from Phu Quoc, excluding scheduled charter.

VN669 PQC0845 – 1130SIN 321 47
VN668 SIN1230 – 1325PQC 321 47

http://airlineroute.net/2014/08/19/vn-pqcsin-nov14/

[Airbus SAS A340-500]

I think the problem VN faces is that PQC is an inbound destination and they lack a strong point-of-sales from the Singapore/international side. Besides tourists from SIN, VN needs to solicit its Skyteam partners to provide connections from beyond SIN to make this route viable at the very least.

In this case, twice-weekly flights are really not helpful. In addition, the A321 is probably too large a jet for this route. Doing it thrice-weekly with an ATR 72-500 might be more viable.

[259850]

The choice of A321 is not surprising given VN's single-aisle jet fleet is an exclusively A321 fleet.

[MAN Flyer]

I would have thought an A320 would be a better bet than an A321 to start the route, or better yet encourage an LCC to have a go.

Personally a flight from Changi to HPH would be of more interest, or certainly would have been a few years ago.