DHL Express has announced the introduction of a new route between Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and the United States citing increase in bilateral trade between the two countries.

In a statement, DHL said the new service will be operated by Kalitta Air and the dedicated Boeing 777-F will serve the alternative route once a week along with the current Airbus A330 six times a week service from Ho Chi Minh City-Hong Kong.

Growth in Vietnam-US trade

"Following the recent expansion on the intra-Asia and intercontinental airfreight capacity, DHL Express continues to expand its airfreight capacity to cater to rising shipment demand resulting from the ecommerce sector. The new route will offer up to 102 tons additional capacity for customers in Vietnam," DHL said.

It added that the new route will link Sydney, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh and Nagoya before arriving at DHL Express Cincinnati hub in the US.

The new Boeing 777F cargo flight will also add up to 27% additional capacity bringing the weekly total gross payload to over 940 tons.

"We continue seeing strong express logistics services demand between intra-Asia and the US," said Ken Lee, CEO, DHL Express Asia Pacific.

"With Vietnam's continued rise as a manufacturing hub for semiconductors, garments accessories and materials, as well as electronics, we see an increasing demand for our services and we are confident that this additional flight will support our customers in growing their global footprint and entering new markets," Lee added.

Sean Wall, executive vice president, Network Operations & Aviation, DHL Express Asia Pacific noted that the additional capacity is an answer to increasing demand in the route.

"This new route between Ho Chi Minh City and the United States is a testament of our continued effort in keeping our air network and dedicated freighters responsive to the market demand," Wall said. "We continuously evaluate the volume in all our markets, and improve our routes to provide our customers with the most efficient, time-definite international deliveries despite the capacity crunch in the global supply chain."

Vietnam continues to become the 9th largest trading partner of the US. The US-Vietnam trade turnover reached more than US$111 billion in 2021, an increase of nearly US$21 billion compared to 2020.

In 2021, Vietnam's exports to the US reached US$96.29 billion, up 24.9% compared to 2020.

Meanwhile, the US continued to be Vietnam's largest export market, accounting for 28.6% of the country’s export earnings.

DHL Express operates over 280 dedicated aircraft with 15 partner airlines on over 2,200 daily flights across more than 220 countries and territories.