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| Sunday, 12 December 2004 |
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First US commercial flight from Vietnam HO CHI MINH CITY, Saturday (AFP) A United Airlines jumbo jet took off Saturday morning from Ho Chi Minh City to San Francisco, the first US commercial flight from the communist country since 1975. "The plane left at 6.20 AM (2320 PM GMT) with more than a hundred passengers," an employee at United Airlines office in the former Saigon said. "The first passengers were happy, curious, impatient but full of confidence," she said. The UA862 was to make a stopover in Hong Kong before proceeding to San Francisco. On Friday night, flight UA869 from San Francisco via Hong Kong landed at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat international airport and was welcomed by musicians playing drums and students sporting traditional Vietnamese dress and white lanterns. The last commercial passenger flight linking the United States and Vietnam was a Pan Am service that left Saigon on April 24, 1975, a week before it fell to communist forces. Almost 30 years later, the United States has become Vietnam's most important trading partner. "We are very proud to be the first American carrier to arrive here in thirty years" said Martin White, United Airlines senior vice-president of marketing, after he got off the plane. |
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