Does Vietnam Threaten THAI Air as the Major Hub Country in the Region?
 

Vietnamese Airlines Have Been Cleared to Fly to the United States

https://www.flyertalk.com/articles/v...ed-states.html

flights to USA by its home-airline is not the main criteria for a major hub in SEA

No, flights to the U.S. are nearly irrelevant for determining the location of the primary air hub in Indochina

SIN is the major hub in SE Asia. BKK is second, KUL is third.

The common factor for all three countries is the exemption from needing a visa for short stays. The Chinese have woken up to this and now have visa-free entry for shorter periods at their main hubs. Vietnam still requires that everyone has a visa AFAIK

Many countries don't need a visa for Vietnam.
Many countries still need a visa for Thailand.

China doesn't just have a visa-free entry, it has a stopover up to a week without visa. It isn't simply for transfers.

In terms of painless transfer, I cannot imagine any other place as painless (and actually fun) as SIN

Does SIN not have security screening at all gates (except for T4), making it independent of connecting flight origin?

Exactly my thought. Any country that requires a visa, visa on arrival, or even pre-registration of some sort, is going to be at a significant disadvantage as a hub.

everybody in transit at SIN has to go through security. the security is in front of the departure gate
the security check on arrival, that is sometimes applied in SIN has nothing to do with transit as also passengers with final destination SIN have to pass... I guess it is quite random and on my flights from BKK on TG it was applied on less than one in 20 flights...

Oh ok - never happened to me, but I guess they do random checks just like in certain airports you can encounter immigration police at the door of the plane too.

this security check on arrival is pretty unique in Singapore and they can do it easy as they have security facilities at each gate.
Everybody is screened as it is done on departure and the water bottles are collected (on my question what logic it has to collect water bottles from arriving passengers the officers just said those are the rules and they are doing their duties. Useless to question it further in a dictatorship and police state as Singapore is).
as I said it is random and I have experienced it 3-4 times during all those years, so less than one in 20 flights on TG from BKK