Bamboo Airways: First Airline To Fly Nonstop From Vietnam to U.S.

A fledgling airline has made history by being the first Vietnamese carrier to operate a nonstop passenger flight with the U.S. as its final destination.

Bamboo Airways‘ history-making journey was flight QH9149 from Hanoi (HAN) in Vietnam that touched down in San Francisco (SFO) at 7:50 p.m. on September 23, 2021, after a 13.5-hour flight.

This Is Just the Beginning

A predominantly leisure airline, Bamboo Airways was founded in 2017 and currently only has 3 long-haul jets — all of them are Boeing 787 Dreamliners — in its fleet.

For now, Bamboo Airways only has 12 scheduled round-trip flights between Vietnam and the U.S. until November 2021. To solidify the airline’s connection with the U.S. and continue to operate flights after November on a regular basis, Bamboo Airways needs to secure landing slots and gates.

If all goes according to plan, the airline hopes to initiate service between both Hanoi (HAN) and Da Nang (DAD) in Vietnam to Los Angeles (LAX) and Seattle (SEA), bringing the total of West Coast destinations to 3.

After adding several destinations around the globe, the U.S. remained one of the last major regions the airline didn’t operate flights to — until this week.

“In the last two years, we’ve managed to see opportunities in developing flights not just within Vietnam, but also in Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia like Japan, Taiwan, and even reaching towards Europe and Australia. And now, to the U.S.,” said Nguyen Ngoc Trong, a deputy general director of Bamboo Airways.

The airline has further ambitions to increase connections between Vietnam and North America, too. It hopes to launch nonstop flights to places like Dallas (DFW), New York (JFK), and Canada in the not-too-distant future.

The route is likely to prove popular for Vietnamese expatriates as well as leisure travelers who now, for the first time, have the option to take nonstop flights between the U.S. and the Southeast Asian nation.

Hot Tip: Learn about the best ways to fly to Vietnam with points and miles in our step-by-step guide.

Final Thoughts

News of new international connections and inaugural flights is music to our ears after 18+ months of constant bad news in the aviation world.

However, only time will tell as to whether Bamboo Airways’ ambitious expansion plans into the U.S. will work out. If you’ve had Vietnam on your bucket list, it’s just become a whole lot easier to get there. Time to start planning your trip!