Asia’s biggest low-cost carrier AirAsia of Thailand has become the first of its kind in the industry to offer direct flights between HCM City and Jakarta, Indonesia.

The service, which is operated by its associate PT Indonesia AirAsia, marks the first route to Viet Nam by Indonesia AirAsia.

There are four flights weekly from Jakarta to HCM City and vice versa on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

For the promotion period until October 15, bookings for the travel period between October 18 and July 31 will be taken for a one-way ticket, priced from VND696,000 (US$38.5).

"The Government highly welcomes AirAsia's non-stop passenger service connecting HCM City and Jakarta," said La Quoc Khanh, Deputy Director for HCM City's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

"We believe that the outcome of establishing faster connectivity between the two countries will lead to more strategic co-operation in the socio-economic, cultural and tourism areas.''

AirAsia is operating routes between Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Bangkok (Thailand) to Ha Noi and HCM City.

The airline has a network of 130 routes covering 65 destinations and was awarded the 2009 World's Best Low-Cost Airline by Skytrax.