New Route of the Day (22 March 2022): Bamboo Airways between Hanoi and London LHR

Bamboo Airways (IATA code QH) has started service between Hanoi in Vietnam and London LHR, with the first flight (QH 23) arriving in the UK capital on Tuesday 22 March at 17:13 local time. The flight time of the inaugural service was 12 hours and 39 minutes, with the airline’s 787-9 (of which it currently has three) having departed Hanoi at 11:34 local time, according to Flightradar24.com. After spending almost 21 hours on the ground at Heathrow, the first flight from the UK (QH 24) departed at 14:06 on 23 March and landed back in Vietnam just over 11 hours later.

Competition on the 9,250-kilometre route comes from Vietnam Airlines’s 2-weekly A350 service. For the rest of the summer, Cirium data shows that Bamboo Airways will continue to operate the route with a single weekly service on a Sunday, arriving in London at 10:05 and departing just two hours later at 12:05. This is Bamboo Airways’s second European route, having launched service to Frankfurt in February.

Heathrow’s first new airline of 2022

Bamboo Airways is Heathrow’s first new airline of 2022. Since the start of the pandemic, the UK’s busiest airport has welcomed several new carriers. In 2020 this included Czech Airlines, Eastern Airways, Loganair and Vistara, while last year saw the arrival of Blue Air, Jazeera Airways, JetBlue, SkyExpress, SmartWings and Widerøe.

Air France and Turkish Airlines also operate non-stop to Vietnam

According to Cirium data, there will be 10 non-stop services between Europe and Vietnam in April. Apart from Bamboo Airways’s two routes, Air France will serve Ho Chi Minh City from Paris CDG, Turkish Airlines will serve Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (both 2-weekly) from Istanbul IST, while Vietnam Airlines plans to serve Hanoi non-stop from Frankfurt, London LHR, Moscow SVO and Paris CDG, as well as Ho Chi Minh City from Frankfurt. All routes will operate either weekly or 2-weekly.