Southeast Asian carrier Royal Brunei Airlines is to resume flights to the Vietnamese city of Ho Chi Minh City from the final quarter of this year. The airline has confirmed it will add a four times weekly link from its main base at Bandar Seri Begawan’s Brunei International Airport, the primary air gateway into the nation, from October 17, 2014.

The new link will be operated by a mix of Airbus A319 and A320 equipment and will operate with a split schedule with flights operating on an afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays and at the evening on Fridays and Sundays. Royal Brunei expects to generate a good mix of passengers on the route from across its network with the city, formerly Saigon, developing as a popular holiday and business destination over recent years.

“Our Commercial team do regular route studies to develop and increase connectivity for our markets. In their latest studies, Ho Chi Minh City has emerged a frontrunner in providing connections for key markets from Melbourne, Dubai and London and also for regional destinations like Kota Kinabalu,” said Dermot Mannion, deputy chairman, Royal Brunei Airlines.

The airline has experience of the market having previously served the Bandar Seri Begawan – Ho Chi Minh City route for a six year period. It introduced flights on the city pair in March 2006 and operated up to a daily service at its peak. However, after reducing frequency to just a weekly operation in late 2011, the route was finally closed in February 2012.

The route closure was just one of a number of flights that were culled from the Royal Brunei schedule at the time as part of a major business restructuring. Other destinations that were cut from the network included Auckland, Brisbane, Kuching and Perth as the carrier focussed on its short-haul business strategy and only the core transit markets that were supporting its limited home O&D market.

Our analysis, below, shows that although there was a varied performance during Royal Brunei’s six years of operation on the Bandar Seri Begawan – Ho Chi Minh City route, the carrier certainly stimulated demand and after the route’s closure O&D demand is more than double the levels witnessed before the link was opened.

However, the data clearly shows the important role transfer traffic played on this route in the past with up to 5,000 additional passengers a year connecting to or from Ho Chi Minh to or from other Royal Brunei Airlines flights at Brunei International Airport. Interestingly, the largest flows were to and from Auckland, Brisbane and Perth; all destinations that were cut from the Royal Brunei network alongside Ho Chi Minh City in late 2011 or early 2012.

Data provided by