Travellers in the Maldives are getting a fresh budget-friendly way east. Vietjet, Vietnam's largest private airline, will fly between Malé and Ho Chi Minh City with a stop in Colombo, launching on 5 December 2026. The route runs three times a week — Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays — and bookings are already open.
To mark the launch, Vietjet is running a three-day sale with Eco one-way fares from USD 250 including taxes, plus 20% off Deluxe base fares, bookable until 21:30 on 10 October 2026 Maldives time via its website and app. The same sale covers other routes in Vietjet's network for travel up to 30 September 2027, with blackout dates possible. You can also book the Maldives–Colombo and Colombo–Ho Chi Minh City legs separately if you fancy a Sri Lanka stopover on its own.
The real draw here is the two-for-one routing: a single itinerary that strings together three very different destinations. Colombo puts Sri Lanka's beaches, tea country and wildlife parks within easy reach, while Ho Chi Minh City delivers street food, French-colonial landmarks and a fast-growing skyline — and acts as Vietjet's hub for onward connections across Asia-Pacific and beyond. From there, the airline's network stretches to Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.
The route also works in reverse, giving Vietnamese and Sri Lankan travellers a straightforward path to the Maldives — a market that has historically relied on Middle Eastern and Indian carriers. For Malé, it's a new entry in the international network of an airline operating 135 aircraft across more than 250 routes. Vietjet has been picking up momentum lately: named Asia's Leading Airline Brand 2026 at the World Travel Awards and Asia Low Cost/Hybrid Airline of the Year by CAPA, with brand value up 117% to USD 906 million in 2026 according to Brand Finance. Onboard, expect Vietnamese staples like pho, banh mi and iced milk coffee, plus earn-and-redeem through the SkyJoy loyalty programme with over 250 partner brands.
In other Maldives news this week: JOALI BEING in Raa Atoll ranked No. 8 in the Best Spa Resorts category of Condé Nast Traveler's US Readers' Choice Awards 2026 (Ocean Pool Villas from USD 2,442 per night, B&B). JA Manafaru in the far-north Haa Alifu Atoll made the 2026 MICHELIN Guide hotel selection — look out for Kuri, its four-seat treetop restaurant inside a living banyan tree serving a five-course menu built on atoll-sourced ingredients. And South Ari Atoll keeps raising its underwater profile: Machchafushi Island Resort & Spa hosted Nikon underwater photographers from 14 to 17 October 2026 to shoot its house reef and the Kudhi Maa shipwreck, which sits between 12 and 30 metres down.
Why it matters: if the Maldives is on your list but the airfares have felt steep, this route — and its USD 250 launch fares — makes a Sri Lanka-plus-Maldives or Maldives-plus-Vietnam double-header genuinely affordable, with low-cost onward connections across Asia thrown in.
