HO Chi Minh city is just a short one hour 40 minutes flight away from Kuala Lumpur.

With the introduction of AirAsia's flight to this biggest city in Vietnam beginning April 15, it is now fast growing into a favourite holiday destination among Malaysians as well as Vietnamese migrant workers and businessmen.

During the official launch of the flight on April 16, AirAsia chairman Datuk Pahamin Rajab said a total of 20,000 seats on the low cost carrier were snapped up since the opening for bookings for the Kuala Lumpur-Ho Chin Minh route and the Bangkok-Ho Chin Minh route began on March 12 and March 3 respectively.

"The low fare travel to Ho Chin Minh was a much awaited event since it had been over a year we commenced the flights to Hanoi. Our offer for this destination is in demand as it stimulates travel for both countries to and from Ho Chin Minh. Our guests can take advantage of our vast network to visit the next city within Asean or even to other international destinationas from both the hubs in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok," he said.

Present at the launch were the Counsul General of Malaysia to Ho Chin Minh, Khairi Omar; Tourism Malaysia's senior deputy director for international promotion (South East Asia division) Ammar Abd Ghapar, CEO Thai AirAsia, Tassaporn Bijleveld and Thailand's Consul General to Ho Chin Minh, Pravit Chaimongkol.

Pahamin added: "The Kuala Lumpur-Ho Chin Minh and Saigon-Ho Chin Minh service carries a diverse mix of passengers, from business travellers to tourists. Both cities have endless attractions to offer to these travellers.

"AirAsia will continue to boost tourism and stimulate local economies by enabling more visitors to easily travel within the region. The economic benefits for both countries are tremendous with such an exchange of passenger traffic."

AirAsia group now has a combined 11 flights weekly to Ho Chin Minh, including four-time weekly flights from Bangkok.

He said AirAsia group is aggressively expanding and strenghtening its network in Indochina where collectively it has nine points of entry. These include Phnom Penh and Siem Ream (Cambodia), Vientiane (Laos), Hanoi and Ho Chin Minh (Vietnam) from Kuala Lumpur while Phnom Penh, Yangon (Myanmar), Hanoi and Ho Chin Minh from Bangkok.

"With a combined 101 routes, 53 destinations serviced by AirAsia group and two international destinations serviced by AirAsia X, AirAsia's long-haul low cost affiliate, business and leisure travellers have much to gain from the frequency, strong connectivity, convenience, easy accessibility and amazing low fares.

"The Kuala Lumpur-Ho Chin Minh and Bangkok Ho Chin Minh service would also enable the people of Ho Chin Minh to connect to AirAsia's extensive group network and also attract long-haul guests flying from the Gold Coast, Australia and Hangzhau, China," Pahamin said.

For details on AirAsia destinations and fares, visit www.airasia.com.