The upstart airline will operate flights to Munich from Saigon twice a week and from Hanoi once a week starting July.
Bamboo Airways signed a memorandum of understanding with the airport in Munich, Germany's third-largest city, this week to proceed with route preparations. Passengers on these flights will be served by the recently-received Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
During its first year in operation, the FLC Group-backed airline operated 40 domestic and international routes, but is looking to expand that number to 85 this year. Europe figures to be an important part of the plan considering the large Vietnamese diaspora residing on the continent. Some 176,000 Vietnamese live in Germany and 226,800 Germans traveled to Vietnam last year, a 6% increase from the previous year.
Meanwhile, 80,000 Vietnamese reside in the Czech Republic, which prompted Bamboo Airways to launch the first direct route from Hanoi to Prague this month.
The expansion announcement comes amidst turmoil for the nation's aviation industry. On Monday, Saigon and Hanoi's airports both stopped accepting flights from South Korea, and last month Reuters reported that the novel coronavirus had cost Vietnamese airlines about VND10 trillion (US$430 million).
[Photo via Bamboo Airlines]
