Sydney Airport has welcomed its 50th airline, Vietjet, with its inaugural service from Ho Chi Minh City. The airport now has four airlines operating regular services to Vietnam, which is a growing tourist market that attracted over 317,000 Australian travellers in 2019. Sydney Airport has taken on six new airlines over the past year, despite COVID-19 causing the number of airlines operating through the airport to drop to 20 in April 2020. Sydney Airport CEO Geoff Culbert states that attracting airlines to increase capacity is vital to support the recovery of international tourism, business travel, student travel and New South Wales’ economy. Vietnamese passenger volumes were 14% above pre-COVID levels in March 2023.