TokyoTomo Travel Guide

The member airlines of SkyTeam Alliance held a workshop and reception named “SkyTeam Showcase” on July 2 in Tokyo. With Vietnam Airlines’ (VN) participation in the alliance on June 10, SkyTeam has expanded its flight network to include another 20 destinations. Hideo Aoki, senior passenger sales supervisor for Eastern Japan at Vietnam Airlines, showed up at the onset of the reception and said, “Taking the opportunity to have become a SkyTeam member, we aspire to be a world airline and offer superior services.”

At Narita Airport, the check-in counters of the SkyTeam airlines are grouped at the North Wing of Terminal 1. However, the new entrant Vietnam Airlines as well as China Southern Airlines (CZ) are still in the Terminal 2, so they expect to be relocated to Terminal 1 in the near future to better serve their clients. Meanwhile, SkyTeam plans a co-location project at airports all over the world whereby common-use check-in counters and lounges are to be set up for the benefit of the alliance passengers. In fact, the SkyTeam’s co-location appeared last year at the Terminal 4 of London Heathrow Airport, the first ever in the world for the alliance. They are supposed to push forward with this project globally.

At the Showcase, approximately 200 people, mostly from travel agencies, assembled and enjoyed such events as stamp collection game and lottery for air ticket prizes donated by the alliance airlines.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

A Vietnam tourism seminar was recently held jointly by Vietnam Airlines, VWC 20 Million Traveler Promotion Office at JATA and Indochina Tourism Promotion Forum (ITPF). Speaking at the seminar, Nguyen Quoc Tuan, General Manager, Japan, Vietnam Airlines, said that the Vietnam travel market started to show a sign of recovery since the beginning of 2010. Hiroshi Sawabe, Director of VWC 20 Million Traveler Promotion Office at JATA added that Vietnam should become a promising market attracting 500,000 visitors well within one or one and a half years.

Commenting on its future strategy, Hideo Aoki, the airline’s Senior Passenger Sales Supervisor, Eastern Japan, said that it plans to promote the central and northern Vietnam as a long-stay resort destination, following the airline’s drastic increase of weekly frequency by 117 percent or to 48 weekly flights on the Japan/Vietnam route in 2010 including the code-sharing flights with Japan Airlines. As its Japan flights provide the same-day connections to central Vietnam including Hue, Dalat and Nha Trang, Vietnam Airlines strives to further develop the Vietnam travel market.

Meanwhile, the airline has organized a study tour to central Vietnam jointly with VWC 20 Million Traveler Promotion Office. At the seminar, Chiharu Suzuki of Nippon Travel Agency, Eastern Japan, who participated in the study tour, gave a presentation on the recent Vietnam tourism market. The presentation introduced seven appealing tourism points of central Vietnam that include “World Heritage,” “beautiful beaches,” “a large selection of hotels,” “healthy Vietnamese food,” “newly opened Casino,” “spas and marine sports” and “two golf courses.” Suzuki said that these tourism materials should attract Japanese travelers from the seniors to the young people. Resort hotels along the coast line are slated for opening in two to three years and the central Vietnam will no doubt be Vietnam’s leading beach resort, Suzuki concluded.

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Vietnam Airlines (VN) plans to increase its weekly Narita /Ho Chi Minh City service from seven to 12 during its summer schedule effective from March 28. The airline currently operates seven weekly flights leaving Tokyo Narita at 1030 in the morning. Additional 5 flights are scheduled to depart from Narita at 1930 in the evening.

From Ho Chi Minh City, the new service will depart at 0605 in the morning while the existing service leaves at 0005 past midnight. Aircraft to be put into service will be Airbus A321-200 with a configuration of 16 Business class and 168 Economy class seats. The new service will bring additional 920 seats weekly, one way. The airline meanwhile applied to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) for the following schedule to be approved.

It is highly likely that with the frequency increase this time, Vietnam Airlines counts on passenger-friendly connectivity with its North American route, eyeing the upcoming alliance membership of the SkyTeam.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.