Israeli airline Arkia on Monday inaugurated the first non-stop service from Tel Aviv to Vietnam.
The latest expansion by the Israeli carrier comes one month after starting direct flights to Thailand and follows the successful launch of direct flights to New York last year.
Arkia is offering a weekly flight to the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, which will become biweekly in March, while it is now operating twice-weekly flights to the Thai capital of Bangkok, with additional flights to the popular Thai island of Phuket scheduled to begin in July.
Fares to Vietnam will begin at $699 each way in economy class, while flights to Bangkok – where it is competing head-on against Israeli flag carrier El Al – start at $499 one-way.
Israelis are flying to Thailand and Vietnam in record numbers amid a resurgence of the Israeli aviation sector. Arkia is the third-largest Israeli airline after El Al and Israir.
The move comes after El Al announced a significant expansion of its London route, with 20 weekly flights to the UK throughout the winter.
The carrier offers 15 flights a week to London Heathrow Airport – Europe’s busiest – as well as five weekly flights to London Luton Airport.
Around the same time, Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air confirmed it would be restarting its service to Tel Aviv.
"That Wizz Air has chosen to put their faith in Israel and resumes operations in contrast to other foreign carriers who have chosen for a myriad of reasons not to return should be applauded,” Mark Feldman CEO of Jerusalem's Ziontours, told JNS.
"It is another example of a foreign airline who has made a conscious business decision to fly to and from Tel Aviv.”
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