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Vietnam-based low-cost carrier VietJet is set to become the third international airline offering flights from Western Sydney International airport, with an announcement expected as soon as Monday to confirm planned services likely to begin with flights to Ho Chi Minh City.
The airport and the airline are likely to formalise VietJet’s entry to Australia’s newest international airport to meet growing demand for Australian travel to Asia and cater to diverse communities in Western Sydney, industry sources told this masthead.
VietJet will begin offering two weekly return flights between Western Sydney and Ho Chi Minh City from January, stepping up three weekly return flights from March, said sources with knowledge of the deal. Full details will be released on Monday.
VietJet may also provide an update on the prospects of a launch of domestic services in Australia in what would be a major boost to competition in a market dominated by Qantas Group and Virgin, as Vietnam’s President To Lam embarks on a state visit to Australia and New Zealand this week.
The budget airline has already requested the 2252 take-off and landing slots from the slot coordinator for Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport. Industry sources say that even if VietJet plans to initially fly between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, the airline would still be months away from offering its first flights.
To date, Western Sydney Airport has secured international flights from Air New Zealand, to launch in October, and Singapore Airlines to launch in November, as well as Qantas and Jetstar, which will begin in October.
VietJet and the Western Sydney Airport were contacted for comment. The low-cost carrier operates daily return flights to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, from both Sydney Airport and Melbourne, offering seven weekly services for each city. It also offers five weekly return flights between Brisbane and Ho Chi Minh City, as well as three weekly flights between Perth and Ho Chi Minh City.
Basing flights from Western Sydney International Airport could appeal to historically Vietnamese communities in south-western Sydney suburbs such as Cabramatta, Canley Vale and Canley Heights.
VietJet’s website currently allows searches for flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Western Sydney International, although none are offered yet.
VietJet is in expansion mode across the region with subsidiaries in Thailand and the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan.
Headquartered in Hanoi, the airline has 107 planes primarily based in the Vietnamese cities of Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Cam Ranh and Hai Phong. It has placed orders for 100 A321neos and another 20 A330neos.
In total, the airline has planned orders to receive more than 600 Airbus and Boeing aircraft over the next decade. It also has plans to lease 10 Chinese COMAC-made C909s.
In June 2025, in announcing the new Airbus order, Vietjet chairwoman Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao said she had a “vision and the determination to make Vietnam a regional aviation hub for passenger transportation, technical services, logistics, training, research, global supply chains, and aviation infrastructure”.
Vietnam has become a popular vacation destination for Australians with flight capacity between the two countries rising to 263 per cent of pre-COVID levels in April of last year, according to Corporate Traveller, a division of Flight Centre Travel Group.