The Cam Ranh International Terminal (CXR), the newest airport in Vietnam, is eyeing to open direct flights to Cebu and is open to hiring Filipinos to help in their expansion.

Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, chairman of CXR, in a press conference at the sidelines of the Routes Asia 2019 conference, said Vietnam and the Philippines should grow together in terms of tourism.

“Vietnam’s policy has opened up for the tourists like the giving of visa online and upon arrival. I feel comfortable growing 10 million passengers in our airport for the next few years, so I believe we can have some kind of cooperation between the two countries,” he said.

Cam Ranh International Terminal

CXR, which serves the city of Nha Trang in the south of Vietnam, will be expanding to accommodate 8 million passengers in by 2020. This includes plans to open four weekly flights direct to Cebu. He said that with the current flight route setup, Cebuano travelers need to take three connecting flights to get to Cam Ranh City via plane. The first is a domestic flight from Cebu to Manila, then another flight from Manila to another city like Ho Chi Minh. From that point, a third flight is needed to get to Cam Ranh, which is costly. “It’s a waste of time,” he said.

Mr. Johnathan Hanh Nguyen pointed out that if both Vietnam and the country’s tourism departments will collaborate to offer direct flights, it would cut the air travel time by up to two and a half hours.

Mr Johnathan Hạnh Nguyễn and Mr. Ramon Monzon The President cum CEO of The Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc.

Meanwhile, Philippine Stock Exchange president Ramon Monzon said both economies of the Philippines and Vietnam will benefit once a new route is established, as it will bring in more investors.

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CXR has been operational for almost a year and has a passenger traffic of 5.2 million arrivals, the bulk of which are international passengers. It serves as a gateway to the south central coast of Vietnam and has the fourth largest total passenger traffic among Vietnam’s airports. Their top markets include China, Russia, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Also, Mr. Johnathan Hanh Nguyen stated that he wanted to open jobs offers for Filipinos. “We welcome Filipinos (to apply at CXR) because they speak English,” he said.