HANOI - Vietnam Airlines will begin direct flights between Hanoi and Kuala Lumpur on Thursday as part of its regional route expansion programme, the company said.

The national flag carrier will run a twice-weekly service, departing on Tuesdays and Thursdays, to the Malaysian capital using Airbus A320 aircraft, a marketing department official said today.

The service had originally been earmarked to start on Oct 25 on a thrice-weekly basis, but the date was brought forward to meet anticipated demand.

Vietnam Airlines currently operates daily flights from the southern business capital of Ho Chi Minh City to Kuala Lumpur.

Rebranding campaign

The airline has recently announced a host of new routes, including thrice-weekly direct flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Fukuoka in southern Japan from Sept 18.

The carrier will also operate four flights each week between Hanoi and Singapore beginning on Oct 26. It currently offers daily flights to the island-state from Ho Chi Minh City.

Last week Vietnam Airlines said it would begin on Sept 2 operating five flights a week between Hanoi and Siem Reap, the hop off point for Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temple complex.

The carrier, which is considered one of the best of the communist-ruled country's vastly inefficient state-owned enterprises and underwent a rebranding campaign in April, flies to more than 20 destinations worldwide.

Last year, it carried four million passengers, including 1.76 million foreign passengers. However, passenger traffic fell eight percent year-on-year in the first six months of 2003 due to the outbreak of Sars and the Iraq war. - AFP