State-owned Vietnam Airlines on Thursday became the first Southeast Asian carrier to join the SkyTeam global airline alliance, which is boosting its Asia presence as travel demand in the region picks up.

Leo van Wijk, chairman of the SkyTeam governing board, said in a statement: "Asia is an important and strategic growth market for SkyTeam and we are well on track to strengthen our network offering in this part of the world." The alliance already includes Air France and Delta Air Lines of the United States as well as China Southern and Korean Air, while embrace China Eastern is also set to join, he said.

Vietnam Airlines will add 20 new destinations to the SkyTeam network, which allows passengers to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles when travelling on member airlines. SkyTeam says it offers its 393 million annual passengers a worldwide system of more than 13,000 daily flights to 884 destinations in 169 countries.

Vietnam Airlines is looking to become one of Southeast Asia's leading carriers and aims to carry 12 million passengers this year, up from 9.35 million last year. on its 26 foreign and 20 domestic routes. The airline is planning to increase its fleet to 115 aircraft by 2015, from 70 at the end of this year.

On Monday airline industry association IATA said global carriers should be profitable this year for the first time since 2007, led by strong growth in the Asia-Pacific region.