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ndonesian and Vietnamese flag carriers have become more confident about flying to more cities in the two countries, banking on an increasing number of people traveling on business and for leisure between the two most populous countries in Southeast Asia.

Just a day after Vietnamese budget airline Vietjet Air announced its first route to Indonesia, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on code-share flights with its counterpart Vietnam Airlines.

The MoU improves upon a decade-old cooperation agreement between the two airlines, from serving only the Jakarta-Ho Chi Minh City route to serving international routes connecting more cities in the two countries, such as Denpasar, Bali and Surabaya, East Java in Indonesia and Hanoi in Vietnam.

With the cooperation, Garuda, which currently does not fly directly to Vietnam, will be able to sell tickets to connect Indonesian and Vietnamese cities using Vietnam Airlines’ fleet and vice versa.

“[The number of] leisure travelers going to Vietnam is growing. Vietnam is definitely one of the key and highly growing markets for Indonesia,” Garuda Indonesia president director Pahala N. Mansury said on Wednesday, adding that the airline was aiming for better connectivity to major entry gates to Indonesian tourist destinations.

He further said that increasing business activities between the two countries had helped boost air traffic in recent years. “Naturally, when people go to Vietnam, obviously they go to Hanoi and Saigon [Ho Chi Minh City] as two of the largest cities. Meanwhile in Indonesia, [Vietnamese] business travelers usually go to Surabaya,” Pahala said.

Vietnam Airlines president director Duong Tri Thanh said the airline expected to see route expansion beyond Jakarta to other Indonesian cities, and he wanted to “double or triple” Indonesian and Vietnamese air traffic.

“Indonesia is the most populous country and Vietnam is the second one in ASEAN. We cannot afford to just see daily flights between Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City,” he said, adding that the flag carrier aimed to increase the flight frequency from once daily to twice or three times daily.

Last year, 70,000 Indonesians visited Vietnam and 50,000 Vietnamese visited Indonesia, Vietnam Airlines data show.

On Tuesday, Vietnamese budget airline Vietjet Air announced it would fly the Jakarta-Ho Chi Minh City route starting in December. It gave up its “flight attendants in bikinis” gimmick to obtain a permit from Indonesia.

“We strongly believe and are committed to offering the best and suitable services to the Indonesian market,” said Vietjet Air’s deputy director for commercial affairs, Jay L. Lingeswara, adding that his company had learned from its experience with the opening of its route to Malaysia, another predominantly Muslim country.

To lure Indonesian passengers, Vietjet Air vice president for business development Dinh Viet Phuong said the company would serve halal food to Muslim passengers.

For Garuda Indonesia, the Vietnamese market is a promising source of income as more than half of the airline’s revenue comes from international flights. It saw a 20.2 percent increase in the number of its international passengers in January to June to 2.5 million passengers, compared to the 1.9 percent decrease in domestic passenger growth.

Pahala said Garuda and Vietnam Airlines were looking at the possibility of establishing a joint venture business with Vietnam Airlines to cooperate on the operation of new routes. However, the two parties remain tight-lipped about the details of the joint venture. (rdi)