Accordingly, the 160,000,000th passenger (Mr. Bhang Shang Chul of Korean nationality), the 159,999,999th passenger (Mr. Kim Jung Hui of Korean nationality) and the 160,000,001th (Mr. Duong Ngoc Tan of Vietnamese nationality) were three special passengers on flight VN417 from Incheon (Korea) landing at Noi Bai Airport at 14.10 on December 27, 2015.

In addition, Vietnam Airlines also welcomed the 17 millionth passenger in 2015  Mr. Vu Ngoc Truong of Vietnamese nationality, the 16,999,999th passenger (Ms. Nguyen Thu Huong of Vietnamese nationality) and the 17,000,001th passenger  (Mr. Fujiwara Takeshi of Japanese nationality) on  flight VN240 from Ho Chi Minh City to Ha Noi.

The flight VN240 contributed to the total number of 250,000 passengers travelling on the new generation aircraft Airbus A350-900 of Vietnam Airlines in 2015. Since Airbus A350-900 and Boeing 787-9 were put into operation in July 2015, many travellers decided to change their itineraries in order to experience flying on the new aircraft.

In the period of 1995 – 2015, Vietnam Airlines operated 1.39 million international and domestic flights, transporting 160 million passengers and growing by 11% per year. In 2015, it is estimated that Vietnam Airlines transported 17.4 million passengers and provided excellent air control services for more than 127.500 flights.

The strong growth of Vietnam Airlines and Viet Nam’s aviation in the recent years has contributed significantly to the development of tourism industry, contributing to attract more tourists to the country.

Pham Thanh