Ep 320: Vietnam Leads on ASEAN Air Passenger Integration, Severe Weather Events Pummel Asia & Low-Key Chinese Golden Week Outlook

“If you go back three of four years, you’d have expected Singapore to take the lead on such a regionally important project - but now it’s Vietnam.” That seems significant. With three quarters of 2026 completed, pan-Asian air travel networks look rather different from the start of the year. The 9th month of the year, September, featured a raft of intriguing developments across South East Asia, plus China, Australia and Canada. On this week’s show, Gary and Hannah track back through a highly consequential month and the implications for the crucial end-of-year travel period and into 2027. En route, we assess Vietnam’s app-based ID card integration pilot project with Singapore and Laos for air travellers at two airports, and Vietjet’s ambitions in contrasting global markets: the US and Australia. Plus, we address the impacts of catastrophic flooding in Bangkok and throughout Thailand, the grim continuation of fire-smoke haze blighting Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, while typhoon season proves deadly in Japan. Plus, why is Air Canada opening up to Vietnam but closing down to Singapore? And will the accelerating race to open one of the world’s largest new airports meet its end of year deadline?