Vietnam Airlines and Delta Air Lines have signed a two-way agreement to expand their codeshare deal.

The agreement has been made possible by a recent decision by the United States Federal Aviation Administration to grant the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam CAT1 certification.

The two carriers are scheduled to review flight operations system in September with a view to launching the codeshare in October.

Once ascertained that Vietnam Airlines is up to operational standard, Delta is expected to offer Vietnam Airlines tickets on the Hanoi-Tokyo route to passengers.

It is the first move that Vietnam Airlines has made into the United States market.

In 2010, Vietnam Airlines forged a one-way codeshare agreement with Delta Air Lines on ten international routes to and from the US and ten domestic routes in the United States.

The agreement has enabled Vietnam Airlines passengers to fly to eight US states by transiting through Delta’s Tokyo (Japan) or Frankfurt (Germany) bases.

In 2018, the size of the Vietnam-US market reached 757,000 arrivals, up eight per cent year-over-year.