Vietjet becomes Sydney Airport’s record breaking 50th airline customer

In a major milestone for Sydney Airport, the Australian hub today welcomed its 50th airline with Vietjet’s inaugural service from Ho Chi Minh City arriving this morning.

This is the highest number of airlines flying regular scheduled passenger services the airport has ever seen in its 103-year history.

Photos by Kurt Ams

Flight VJ85 touched down in Sydney this morning with nearly 400 passengers onboard. Vietjet will be offering three return services a week from Ho Chi Minh City a week on its A330-300 fleet.

Sydney Airport now has four airlines flying to Vietnam, a rapidly growing tourist market which attracted more than 317,000 Australian travellers in 2019.

In total, Sydney Airport has now onboarded six new airlines over the last 12 months and existing airlines have returned and are continuing to increase capacity, providing great opportunities and choice for the travelling public.

Photos by Kurt Ams

In 2019, there were 48 airlines flying regular passenger services through Sydney with this dropping to around 20 airlines in April 2020.

Sydney Airport CEO Geoff Culbert said: “For the first time in our proud 103-year history, we have 50 airlines flying through Sydney Airport. This is an incredible achievement when you consider air travel was almost non-existent through COVID.

“Attracting airline networks to rebuild capacity to Sydney is key to supporting the recovery of international tourism, business travel, student travel and the broader New South Wales economy.

Photos by Kurt Ams

“The Vietnam market has experienced a strong surge in capacity and demand, with passenger volumes 14% above pre-COVID levels in March 2023.
We’re thrilled to welcome Vietjet to Sydney Airport, as the airline will be providing a further low-cost option to this sought-after and popular destination.

“As Australia marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Vietnam it’s fitting that our 50th airline is a Vietnamese carrier.”