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Vietnam Airlines will open a route from Ho Chi Minh City to Denmark as part of its European growth.
LONDON HEATHROW–SEOUL INCHEON
Virgin Atlantic has firmed plans to launch a new route to Seoul using remedy slots gained through the merger of Korean Air and Asiana Airlines.
Daily flights between London Heathrow (LHR) and Seoul Incheon (ICN) are set to begin March 29, 2026, operated by Boeing 787-9s. The route will become Virgin’s fifth in the Asia-Pacific region, joining Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi and Malé.
The launch is being made possible by remedy slots awarded to Virgin as part of the regulatory approval process for Korean Air’s acquisition of Asiana Airlines, which was finalized last December.
In 2023, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority flagged concerns that the deal could damage competition between the UK and South Korea, given Korean and Asiana are the sole operators of nonstop flights between the countries. To resolve the issue, Korean agreed to make seven weekly LHR slot pairs available to Virgin that will be used to open the route to Seoul.
Virgin already has a codeshare agreement with Korean, a fellow SkyTeam global alliance partner, allowing passengers to connect from Seoul to 15 cities across the Asia-Pacific region. These include Brisbane and Sydney in Australia; Fukuoka, Hokkaido, Nagoya, Okinawa, Osaka, Tokyo Haneda and Tokyo Narita in Japan; Auckland in New Zealand; Da Nang, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam; and Hong Kong.
According to OAG Schedules Analyser data, both Korean and Asiana serve ICN-LHR daily using Boeing 777-300ERs and Airbus A350-900s, respectively, offering a combined 8,400 two-way weekly seats.
Before the pandemic, British Airways also offered daily service on the 5,503 mi. (4,782 nm) route, but the carrier has not resumed service since suspending operations in 2020.
Sabre Market Intelligence figures indicate that O&D traffic between the UK and South Korea totaled approximately 462,000 two-way passengers in 2024, with 37% of travelers flying indirectly. The most popular one-stop connecting points were Shanghai, Helsinki and Dubai.
Details of the new Seoul route come six months after Virgin pulled flights out of Shanghai—the airline’s sole route to mainland China—blaming “significant challenges and complexities” resulting from not being able to overfly Russia. Virgin is required to operate the Seoul service for at least three years—but then has the flexibility to redeploy the remedy slots to other routes if desired.
HO CHI MINH CITY–COPENHAGEN
Vietnam Airlines will connect Vietnam and Denmark with nonstop flights for the first time from December, marking another step in the carrier’s European growth strategy.
Starting Dec. 15, the new route will link Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN) and Copenhagen Airport (CPH) with three flights per week, operated using Boeing 787-9s. The 5,754 mi. (5,000 nm) route will be offered year-round.
With no previous direct air link between the two countries, all 74,800 passengers traveling between Vietnam and Denmark in 2024 did so via connecting flights, primarily through Doha, Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Istanbul, according to Sabre.
The Copenhagen launch follows the airline’s rollout of regular service to Munich in October 2024 and its debut in Italy with flights from Hanoi to Milan Malpensa (MXP) that started on July 1. In May, the carrier also resumed service to Moscow Sheremetyevo (SVO) after a three-year suspension following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
With the addition of Copenhagen, Vietnam Airlines’ European network will therefore expand to seven destinations from the winter 2025-26 season: Copenhagen, Frankfurt, LHR, MXP, SVO, Munich and CDG.
Vietnam Airlines has been a SkyTeam member since 2010, and its launch of service to Copenhagen strengthens the alliance’s expanding footprint in Northern Europe, following the recent addition of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS). SAS, the main operator at CPH, joined SkyTeam in September 2024 following its departure from the Star Alliance.
In June 2025, the two carriers cemented their cooperation through a codeshare agreement designed to boost connectivity between Vietnam and Scandinavia. The partnership allows passengers to book combined itineraries across both networks, as well as earning SAS loyalty points.
TAIPEI–PHOENIX
Phoenix is set to gain its first-ever nonstop service to and from Asia from February 2026, as Taiwan-based full-service carrier Starlux Airlines unveiled plans to launch Taipei flights early next year—just months after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) unveiled a record investment to expand its chipmaking operations in the Arizona city.
The airline intends to connect Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) with Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) up to 4X per week, subject to government approvals. Flights will be operated using Airbus A350-900s configured with 306 seats across four cabins.
The announcement comes less than three months after TSMC pledged an additional $100 billion investment in the city of Phoenix, bringing its total planned US investment to $165 billion. The expansion includes three advanced chip fabrication plants, two packaging facilities and a major R&D center—said to be the largest foreign direct investment in US history.
Sabre data show that in 2024, Phoenix–Taiwan traffic totaled 67,000 two-way passengers, averaging 92 travelers per day each way. Taiwan ranked as the second-largest Asian market from Phoenix, after India, during the year. With an estimated 30,000 Taiwanese residents already living in Arizona—a figure expected to rise alongside TSMC’s growing presence—PHX expects the demand for direct connectivity will continue to strengthen.
The announcement coincides with major infrastructure expansion at PHX. In April, the airport broke ground on a new $326 million north concourse at Terminal 3. The eight-gate facility, set to open in 2026, is designed to support both domestic and international operations, and will help accommodate future long-haul services like those planned by Starlux.
Alongside the planned introduction of a Phoenix route, Starlux launched operations to California’s Ontario International Airport (ONT) in June, marking its fourth destination in the US and its second in the Los Angeles basin. The 4X-weekly service provides an alternative to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) for travelers heading between Taiwan and Southern California.
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