Vietnam Airlines and Delta Air Lines plan to upgrade their codesharing relationship, setting the stage for Delta to offer seats on the Vietnamese carrier’s flights.

Vietnam Airlines says the move marks its first effort to capitalise on the country’s attainment of Category 1 status from the US Federal Aviation Administration in February.

In addition to allowing Vietnamese carriers to offer services to the USA, Category 1 allows Vietnamese carriers to carry to code of USA-based airlines.

The upgraded agreement will see Deltadistributing Vietnam Airlines seats on the Hanoi-Tokyo route from October 2019. This adds to a previous agreement between the SkyTeam members signed in 2010, which allows Vietnam Airlines to sell onward connections aboard Deltafrom Tokyo Narita and Frankfurt