Since the low travel season this year coincides with the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long- ${bigcity_Hanoi:"Hanoi"}, the aviation market is witnessing its biggest ever promotional campaign era.

Domestic and international airlines with air routes to Vietnam have kicked off the winter flight schedule, offering very attractive airfares.

Domestic flights’ airfares down by 50 percent

The national flag air carrier Vietnam Airlines has announced 50 percent airfare reductions for domestic flights, including the flights on Hanoi - Vinh, HCM City/Phu Quoc Island – Can Tho/Rach Gia, HCM City – Nha Trang/Da Lat, Hanoi/HCM City – Da Nang, Hue, Tam Ky, Da Nang – Da Lat, Hanoi – HCM City/Buon Ma Thuot/Da Lat/Nha Trang/Quy Nhon, Tuy Hoa/Can Tho, HCM City – Vinh/Hai Phong/Dong Hoi. The airfares on the air routes will be between 400,000 and 800,000 dong.

The cheap airfares will be applied to flights taken between September 15 and October 30, where 300,000 seats will be offered. An estimated 6999 cheap air tickets are selling everyday.

Besides super-cheap air tickets, on Friday, the budget airline Jetstar Pacific is opened its “Rong may man” (lucky dragon) program, under which 1,000 air tickets will be sold at only 100,000 dong. From each week from the beginning of September to October 10, 200 cheap air tickets will be sold accidentally on the airline’s official website jetstar.com. Jetstar Pacific reported that it has sold 600 of the air tickets, while the other 400 will be sold in the next two weeks.

Passengers can also “hunt” for cheap tickets from Jetstar Pacific, at 350,000 dong per ticket for short distance flights, 600,000 dong for Hanoi – HCM City flights and 650,000 dong for HCM City – Vinh/Hai Phong flights.

Joining the market in the low season, Air Mekong, a market newcomer, has also launched 1000 cheap tickets on every route. The airline is offering air tickets for Hanoi – HCM City flights at 800,000 dong. It is expected that in the first period of operation, Air Mekong will provide 34 flights a day on eight domestic air routes. The airline will focus on short distance flights, mostly to Phu Quoc island.

It’s cheap to fly to US and Europe

On the occasion of the two important events, the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi and the annual International Tourism Exhibition to be held in HCM City, Vietnam Airlines is offering big discounts for international travelers.

Under the program, return tickets to Southeast Asian countries are selling at 950,000 dong (down by 85 percent). Meanwhile, the airfares to Indochina countries are 1.92 million dong, down by 74 percent, to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan 1.9 million dong ( -80 percent), to Japan, South Korea 5.8 million dong ( -82 percent), Australia 9.55 million dong (- 50 percent).

Vietnam Airlines also decided to lower the airfares on the air routes where it holds a large market share. For example, airfares for direct flights to France, Germany and Russia have dropped by 40 percent to 11.44 million dong per ticket per travel. The tickets will be applied for the flights to depart on October 15 – December 31, 2010 and April 1 – May 31, 2011.

TransViet, the booking agent for nearly 10 international airlines in Vietnam, has revealed that there are big discounts for tickets to fly to Poland and the US. LOT, the Polish air carrier, will begin providing direct flights on Warsaw – Hanoi with Boeing 767-300 from November 15. The lowest airfare will be $380 per return ticket. A lot of passengers have taken advantage of the promotion campaign to book tickets for the flights to depart from now until November 2011.

Not only attracting travelers from/to Eastern Europe, LOT also can attract a large amount of travelers from/to Western Europe thanks to very cheap airfares.

According to TransViet, the air route from Vietnam to the US has witnessed the two fold growth rate in the last time, since the economy has warmed up, while the procedures for obtaining visas to the US have been loosened. The United Airlines is offering return ticket at $800 for the flights from Hanoi to the western coast of the US, and $950 to the east coats. The flights will depart on September 1, 2010 – June 30, 2011.