A new Vietjet service is planned to link Ho Chi Minh City and the Maldives via Colombo from 5 December 2026. Reports published on 8 October put the operation at three return flights a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. For travellers comparing a Vietnam-and-Maldives holiday, the useful detail is the routing: the journey includes Colombo, rather than being a nonstop Vietnam-to-Malé flight.
This is an announced future service. It is not evidence that you can take the new route during an October holiday, and a promotion’s broad travel period does not make every date a flight-operating date. Check the airline’s actual date-by-date booking results before making connected accommodation plans.
What has been announced
Maldives broadcaster MMTV and Hotelier Maldives both report a 5 December start and three weekly services. They describe the route as an extension of Vietjet’s Ho Chi Minh City–Colombo operation to Malé. Hotelier also reports that bookings are open and that passengers can buy the Maldives–Colombo and Colombo–Ho Chi Minh City sectors separately.
Those details open up two different planning possibilities: travelling through Colombo on the way between Vietnam and the Maldives, or buying an individual sector for a trip that deliberately includes Sri Lanka. They do not establish that every ticket permits a stopover, that every connection is protected or that baggage always transfers automatically. Those points depend on the itinerary and fare you actually purchase.
We are not publishing unverified departure times, stop durations or flight numbers. Use the timetable displayed for your selected dates, and confirm any onward flight against that exact arrival. An announced route is a useful starting point for comparison, not a complete door-to-resort travel plan.
Why the Colombo stop matters
If your priority is the shortest possible journey to the Maldives, compare the full elapsed travel time against other options, including routes with different connecting airports. If your priority is combining destinations, the new service may fit a Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Maldives itinerary more naturally. Neither choice is automatically better: the useful comparison is your complete trip, rather than a route label.
Read the itinerary segment by segment. Check whether Colombo is simply a transit stop or a planned stay, whether the booking is issued as one journey and what the airline requires during the stop. If you intend to enter Sri Lanka, check current entry requirements for your nationality through official channels. Airport transit and a holiday ashore are different arrangements.
For flights on separate bookings, ask what happens if the first service is delayed. Do not assume the second airline will rebook you or accept checked baggage from a different ticket. A longer buffer, or a planned overnight stop, may be more practical than an optimistic connection; choose that after checking the actual schedule and ticket rules.
The October offer and the December start are separate dates
Vietjet is advertising a three-day promotion for 8–10 October 2026. The airline’s indexed official terms list a specific Maldives promotional travel period of 4 December 2026 to 31 March 2027, with exclusions for holidays and peak periods. The announced first service is on 5 December. The earlier boundary in the offer is not confirmation of a flight on 4 December.
Check the current offer page and the live checkout rather than applying a general network promotion to every Maldives departure. Seats at advertised starting prices may be limited, and the amount shown depends on direction, date, currency and fare category. We are not promising a zero-cost ticket or repeating a minimum price as though it were available for your trip.
Compare the total for the baggage, seat choice, meals and flexibility you need, including the return journey. The practical question is what your booking costs and allows once those choices are made. If reading after 10 October, treat this offer as historical and look for the airline’s current fares instead.
The journey continues after Malé
Your international flight gets you to the Maldives gateway; it does not automatically deliver you to your resort or guesthouse. Before booking, send the proposed flight arrival and departure to your accommodation and ask which onward transfer they can provide, what it costs and whether it works on those dates.
Do this particularly carefully if the island requires a seaplane, a domestic flight or a boat with a fixed departure. We have not verified an arrival time for this new Vietjet service, so this article cannot promise a same-day transfer. If the property says a night near the airport is necessary, include that room and the next transfer in your comparison.
Check the return journey in the same way. A resort departure that looks convenient on its own must still leave enough time for airport formalities and the international flight. Keep the airline and accommodation confirmations together so changes to one part of the itinerary do not quietly break the other.
A sensible booking checklist
- Choose a date on which the planned service is actually offered, rather than assuming it runs daily.
- Confirm the Ho Chi Minh City–Colombo–Malé routing and the arrangements during the Colombo stop.
- Check baggage, ticket flexibility and any separate-booking connection responsibilities.
- Ask your accommodation to confirm both onward and return island transfers against the selected flight times.
- Recheck the current airline terms before payment; this report was checked on 9 October 2026.
For background planning, see our getting to the Maldives guide and inter-island transfer guide. Use the airline’s current booking results for the new service rather than treating an older general guide as its timetable.
Sources checked
- Vietjet — official 8–10 October offer terms (Maldives travel-window wording verified in the search index; the full page could not be retrieved during this check).
- MMTV — route announcement, 8 October 2026.
- Hotelier Maldives — service routing and booking announcement, 8 October 2026.