FedEx Express rolls out new Vietnam flight

FedEx subsidiary FedEx Express recently announced it has launched a new flight to and from Hanoi, Vietnam, which will run weekly from Tuesday through Friday.

Company officials said this flight will improve transit times for outbound shipments from Hanoi by one day to multiple destinations, including China, and is part of the company’s effort to be more responsive to the needs of its customers in Vietnam and the Asia Pacific region.

“FedEx has always focused on listening to our customers and meeting their shipping needs,” said David L. Cunningham Jr., president of FedEx Express, Asia Pacific, in an interview.  “Vietnam has demonstrated strong growth in recent years. Export turnover in the first nine months rose 23.2% year-on-year [according to Monthly Statistics Information, Vietnam General Statistics Office, Oct 2010].. Like manufacturers everywhere, those in Vietnam are looking for ways to extract the greatest efficiencies from their supply chains in order to remain competitive.”

Cunningham added that with this service, FedEx further strengthens its leadership and network connectivity in the region. Currently, FedEx connects Vietnam to 22 key Asian cities with the industry’s most extensive intra-Asian network, FedEx AsiaOne. Through the AsiaOne network, businesses in Vietnam are connected to the world through our global network, he said.

With this new flight, FedEx Express now operates around ten flights per week, connecting Vietnam with its major trading partners – the U.S., the E.U., Japan, China and other markets in Asia.

FedEx officials said in a statement that the company has been investing significantly in its operations in Vietnam since diplomatic relations with the U.S.A. were re-established in 1994. They added that FedEx is the first international express transportation company to have its own flights flying into and out of Vietnam. And in 2008, FedEx said it launched an Airbus 310 flight service linking Vietnam and global markets, which increased the company’s transportation capacity into and out of Vietnam five-fold, to more than 30,000kg a day.

The company also pointed out that China has become Vietnam’s biggest trading partner for the past six years, with first quarter trade volume between the countries rising 47.6 percent to $5.554 billion.