Vietnam Airlines on October 29 opened another regional route that links Hanoi with Siem Riep of Cambodia via Luang Prabang of Laos.
The national flag carrier will conduct five flights a week on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, using Fokker 70 planes.

Pham Ngoc Minh, deputy general director of Vietnam Airlines, said the new route is expected to further beef up tourism cooperation between the three neighbouring countries.

The carrier also plans to open several regional routes, including the Luang Prabang-Dien Bien Phu, and Vientiane-Siem Riep-Ho Chi Minh City-Da Nang.

At present, Vietnam Airlines is operating the Hanoi-Vientiane-Phnom Penh-HCM City route, with one flight a day.

The airline began to flights to Siem Riep in March 2000 and Luang Prabang in late 2006. It currently performs 45 flights a week on the HCM City-Siem Riep route and 21 flights a week on the Hanoi-Siem Riep air link.

In addition, Vietnam Airlines has been working on providing a direct air link to the US in late 2008. Los Angeles or San Francisco will be selected as the destination in the US.