One direct flight a day from Singapore to Phu Quoc, with in-flight meals

On July 25, Sun PhuQuoc Airways began flying the Phu Quoc–Singapore route once daily. It's the carrier's fourth international route and the first full-service airline on the sector. Scoot and Vietjet Air already link the same two points, so what's new isn't "a direct flight being born" but "a single daily flight fixed at the same time, on a fare that includes checked baggage and meals." Singapore is an Asian connecting hub, and this adds one more route to choose from—both for the path from Japan to Phu Quoc and for how Vietnam residents plan their weekends.

One round trip daily, including 23 kg checked baggage and an in-flight meal

The schedule reported by VietnamPlus has the Phu Quoc departure9G721departs at 10:35 and arrives in Singapore at 13:20; the Singapore departure,9G720leaves at 14:20 and arrives Phu Quoc at 15:05. Both are local times, and there's a one-hour difference between Vietnam and Singapore. Working back from the published times, the one-way flight takes roughly 1 hour 45 minutes. That both legs sit in the daytime band, avoiding late night and early morning, captures this route's character well.

What the carrier lists as included in the fare: 23 kg of checked baggage, meals and drinks on board, and child fares for ages 2 to 12 held at 75% of the adult fare. Passengers get a cable-car ticket for Hon Thom Island, run by Sun Group, and up to 30% off at the group's lodging, dining, spa and entertainment facilities, VnExpress reports. Launch fares start at 133 Singapore dollars one way, set for travel in the first month after launch on a limited number of seats, the Singapore lifestyle outlet TheSmartLocal reports. The cabin has two classes, business and economy. However,The aircraft type doesn't appear in the airline's announcementAeroRoutes, an outlet that tracks flight schedules, lists this flight as an A321neo.

A latecomer full-service carrier entered a segment where budget airlines got there first

Singapore–Phu Quoc wasn't an empty route. It's a segment low-cost carriers have made their battleground, and entering it with a fare that bundles meals and baggage moves the contest away from the cheapest ticket to 'after you land on the island.' Sun Group, the parent of Sun PhuQuoc Airways, owns the cable car, theme park and hotels on Phu Quoc. A design that ties the air ticket and on-island spending into a single line is hard for an airline with no assets on the island to build.

The carrier only began operating Hanoi–Phu Quoc on November 1, 2025, and its first international route was Taipei on March 29, 2026. That means it has built up to four international routes in under a year. On July 25, two domestic routes also started on the same day as the Singapore route (Two routes from Hai Phong on July 25 bring Phu Quoc within direct reach of the north), you can see a move to widen the doors into the island domestically and internationally at once. The Chengdu route that created a link with inland China (Direct flights from Chengdu to Phu Quoc connect the island to inland China for the first time), you can read the order in which each direction's gap gets filled one flight at a time. What the Singapore route filled was a gap from the south, and from one of Asia's largest transfer hubs at that.

Phu Quoc's growth by the numbers

Figures for Phu Quoc and An Giang province are from VietnamPlus and Vietnam News; national figures are from VietnamPlus's first-half tally. Yen conversions use about 162 dong to the yen.

What stands out in this table is that while total visitors rose 30%, foreigners rose 50%. The center of gravity is shifting from an island of domestic visitors to one of foreign visitors. The Singapore market growing 29.4% nationwide also backs up that this launch was a decision based on numbers, not a whim.

How locals and the industry see it

The remarks of Singapore user Lim Mei Ling appear in both VietnamPlus and VnExpress. The same person raises three points: that a convenient, affordable option has appeared; that checked baggage, meals and drinks are included in the fare; and that the discounted child fare especially helps families like theirs. That passengers' praise leans on "all-inclusive" rather than "speed" shows where this route's demand lies.

The industry view isn't split either. AeroRoutes, a specialist outlet tracking flight schedules, listed this route as a daily flight as of May 20, so it launched without straying far from the plan. Singapore lifestyle media TheSmartLocal introduces it from the angle that full-service is entering, for the first time, a segment that had been dominated by budget carriers. On the administrative side, An Giang Province is advancing 21 projects in a special zone with an eye on APEC 2027, so the move to add air gateways and the ground-side development are running on the same timeline.

For Japanese readers: how this one flight matters

There's no direct flight from Japan to Phu Quoc. Until now the only way was to connect to a domestic flight in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City—effectively a single route option. Now a second, via Singapore, joins it. On paper, if you leave Japan in the morning and reach Changi by early afternoon, you can connect to the 14:20 departure for Phu Quoc the same day. But if you book separate tickets, reclaiming and rechecking baggage and securing connection time are all on you, and there's no guaranteed rebooking if an earlier flight is late and you miss the connection. Plan with plenty of margin.

It's even clearer for Japanese residents of Singapore. Leave Changi on Friday afternoon and you're in Phu Quoc at 15:05; depart at 10:35 on Sunday and you're back in Singapore by 13:20. A three-day, two-night weekend trip works with no transfer. For residents of Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi, by contrast, what they'll feel first isn't a new route to Singapore via Phu Quoc so much as the weekend crowds and higher room rates from more foreigners spending weekends on the island.

The way costs compare changes too. Only by lining up an LCC fare plus checked baggage and meals against a fare that includes both baggage and food does a winner emerge. The commemorative one-way fare of 133 Singapore dollars is an entry price limited to a set number of seats, a different thing from normal-season levels. A comparison holds only after you put both carriers' actual booking screens side by side for your own dates. The included Hon Thom cable-car ticket can be counted as an effective discount if you plan to use Sun Group facilities on the island.

This article won't touch on length of stay or visa-exemption conditions. Treatment changes by nationality and timing, and travel-agency sites' descriptions sometimes lag behind updates. Before departure, please confirm with the material published by Vietnam Immigration or the Embassy of Japan in Vietnam. Various online procedures are being consolidated into VNeID, and electronic coordination with Singapore is advancing (VNeID links up with Singapore as residents' procedures cross borders) is a premise residents will want to keep in mind.

One risk to close on. A once-daily route has little to fall back on when there's a delay or cancellation. Finding an alternative flight the same day is hard, and you easily end up pushed to the next day. Times and frequencies can shift right after launch, so if you're placing it around an important commitment, leave a day of buffer.

APEC 2027, beyond the rush of new routes

Sun PhuQuoc Airways opens a Bangkok route next, on August 8. It also lists Malaysia, India, Japan, Russia and Kazakhstan as candidates, and VietnamPlus reports it plans to bring in the wide-body Airbus A330 from September. That Japan is named catches the eye of Japanese readers, but neither destination nor timing has been announced, and for now it's no more than under consideration. Rather than waiting in hope, it's reasonable to view the Singapore connection as the realistic route for the time being.

This whole run of route openings is moving less as a single airline's sales strategy and more as part of the process of making Phu Quoc the host of APEC 2027. The 21 projects worth about 137.1 trillion dong that An Giang Province is advancing in the special zone include roads, ports, and lodging. Against a target of 9 million visitors a year, 2 million of them foreign, foreign arrivals reached 1.3 million in the first half, so the goal is well within reach. Flip that around, and the island's carrying capacity will fill up fast over the next two years. If you're after quiet beaches, the window before crowds and prices peak isn't open for long.

Practical info: what to check before booking

Summary

What this launch changed isn't the travel time but one thing: you can now fly from the connecting hub of Singapore to Phu Quoc at the same time every day, on a fare that includes baggage and meals. Building a Japan-origin itinerary, first check the timetable for a combination that leaves you over three hours to connect at Changi, and if the tickets are separate, factor in the cost you'd bear yourself in a delay. If you live in Singapore, a two-night trip leaving Friday afternoon and returning Sunday morning has become realistic, so lock in dates before lodging rates rise. Once fares are all out, compare the total against an LCC fare plus baggage and meal add-ons. And before departure, confirm just the visa and stay conditions at an official source. Leave that to someone else and your hard-won direct flight stalls at the airport.

Sources:VietnamPlus／VnExpress International／VietnamPlus (Phu Quoc tourism)／VietnamPlus (first-half tally)／Vietnam News／AeroRoutes／TheSmartLocal／AeroTime