Together with its partner carriers, the Ho Chi Minh City service extends Etihad Airways’ total flight network reach to 21 ASEAN destinations.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ president and chief executive officer, said: “We are delighted to announce the introduction of Ho Chi Minh City to the Etihad Airways’ global flight network. Like our home-base of Abu Dhabi, it is a vibrant, culturally rich and expanding city popular with business and leisure travellers.

“The route will be ideal to carry passengers and cargo point to point from the United Arab Emirates, as well as from Etihad Airways destinations across the Middle East, Europe, and North and South America.

“Etihad Airways has a strong South East Asian network and the addition of daily services to Ho Chi Minh City underlines our commitment to this region that continues to experience strong commercial growth across many industries, especially tourism, manufacturing and technology.

“Additionally we would like to thank our partner, Vietnam Airlines, our codeshare partner since October 2011. The introduction of direct services to Ho Chi Minh City will further strengthen our cooperation.”

Tran Ngoc Thach, Ambassador of Vietnam to the UAE, added, “I believe that Etihad's direct flights to Vietnam will contribute to improving understanding between the two peoples of Viet Nam and the UAE. More and more tourists will come to Viet Nam and a greater number of tourists will come to the UAE. They will also help to increase trade and tourism between our two countries for the benefit of the people and countries

The new flight services will further support joint UAE and Vietnam government ventures in areas of energy, infrastructure, tourism, and civil construction. UAE investment in Vietnam now stands at more than US $3 billion and two-way trade revenue approximately US $1.3 billion.”

Flights between Abu Dhabi and Ho Chi Minh City will commence on 1 October 2013 and will be served by a two class A330-200 aircraft, a total 3,668 seats per week.