Silkair touches down in Vietnam’s capital

Thursday, 7 June 2012 01:39 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, launched its first flight to the picturesque and culturally rich city of Hanoi, capital of Vietnam. On 5 June SilkAir’s route network now spans 41 destinations in 12 countries.

The inaugural flight MI 654 departed Singapore Changi Airport at 1515 hours and arrived Hanoi at 1735 hours. The return flight, MI 653 departed Hanoi at 1830 hours and arrived Singapore at 2250 hours (all times local).

Hanoi is SilkAir’s second destination in Vietnam, after Danang. The thrice-weekly flights depart out of Singapore on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays with same day return flights from Hanoi. The services will be operated with Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft, both featuring business and economy class cabins. This new service will complement Singapore Airlines’ current daily flights to Hanoi.

Together, SilkAir and Singapore Airlines will offer a total of 10 round-trip services a week.

To mark this special occasion, passengers on the first flight out of Singapore were presented with a gift of candied lotus seeds, a specialty from Hanoi. Passengers on the first flight out of Hanoi were given exclusively produced SilkAir notebooks. All passengers will also received inaugural flight certificates signed personally by SilkAir’s Chief Executive Marvin Tan, and Commander of the flight Captain John Lee.

“We are delighted to be adding Hanoi to our network and expanding our presence in Vietnam. The capital city of Vietnam has much to offer to the intrepid traveler, with contemporary fine-dining restaurants, upscale bars, modern art galleries and eclectic designer boutiques thriving against a rich backdrop of ancient temples, Chinese merchant townhouses and scenic lakes,” said Tan.

He added, “With our flights complementing Singapore Airlines’ daily service to Hanoi, the additional services will also offer our customers enhanced connectivity to the 96 international cities in 37 countries in the joint Singapore Airlines-SilkAir network.”

Hanoi’s launch comes right after SilkAir’s other launches to Darwin, Australia, on 26 March and Wuhan, China on 24 April.