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Tag: Vietnam Airlines

  • Vietnam Airlines takes delivery of first A320neo

    Vietnam Airlines takes delivery of first A320neo

    Vietnam Airlines recently received its first Airbus A320neo as part of its fleet rejuvenation efforts.

    This is the first among the three A320neo planes, each seating 182 passengers, to be delivered to the carrier this year.

    By adding the A320neo family, the airline affirms the resolve to leverage its operation capacity to meet passengers’ increasing demand, particularly during the peak summer travel season.

    The new aircraft will help Vietnam Airlines provide an additional nearly 40,000 seats during the summer peak, and some 300,000 in the second half of the year.

    They will be used on such domestic routes as Hanoi – Da Lat, Hanoi – Phu Quoc, Ho Chi Minh City – Thanh Hoa and Ho Chi Minh City – Chu Lai.

    The modern narrow-body aircraft is equipped with a new-generation engine that helps save 16% of fuel consumption, reduce noise by 75% and cut some 50% of toxic exhaust compared to previous models.

    Vietnam Airlines stressed that it has made unceasing efforts to improve its services and fleet, hoping to bring passengers safety and comfort.

    The carrier will add large-body Boeing 787-10, the biggest passenger aircraft used in Vietnam at present, to its fleet in the coming time.

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  • Vietravel Airlines reports first profits in 3 years

    Vietravel Airlines reports first profits in 3 years

    Vietravel Airlines has reported a profit of VND10 billion (US$400,128) for the first three months of the year, achieving its first profitable quarter since its inception in 2021.

    As a subsidiary of the tour operator Vietravel, the airline announced first-quarter revenues exceeding VND491 billion, surpassing its initial target by 42%.

    The profits stemmed from increases in domestic airfare prices, which typically reach their peak during the two or three weeks around the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday. This year, the holiday period was from February 7 to 14.

    Typically, airfare prices start to decrease gradually after Tet. However, this year, prices have not followed the expected post-holiday downturn and have remained elevated.

    Factors contributing to sustained high prices include rising operational costs and a shortage of aircraft, particularly as numerous airlines have been forced to ground A321 planes, commonly used for domestic flights, for engine maintenance.

    With a modest fleet of just three A321 aircraft, Vietravel Airlines is nevertheless setting ambitious goals, targeting VND1.05 trillion in revenues for the next quarter. The airline is expanding its network with new routes and increasing the frequency of flights both within Vietnam and internationally.

    Currently, Vietravel Airlines operates charter flights to Japan, connecting Ho Chi Minh City with Takamatsu and Da Nang with Fukushima, among others.

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  • Vietnam Airlines to launch new routes to Europe

    Vietnam Airlines to launch new routes to Europe

    Vietnam Airlines will launch two new routes connecting Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with Germany’s Munich starting October.

    The state-owned carrier said Tuesday that it will use the wide-body Boeing 787 aircraft for the routes.

    The Hanoi-Munich route will have two flights per week, departing on Friday and Sunday and returning on Monday and Saturday.

    The HCMC-Munich route will have one flight per week, leaving on Monday and returning on Tuesday. Starting in December, another flight will be added every Wednesday.

    Vietnam Airlines is the only Vietnamese airline to have direct routes to Europe.

    Private carrier Bamboo Airways used to operate flights to Germany and the U.K. but had shut them down since the end of last year as part of its business strategy change.

    Munich is the third-largest city in Germany and an economic, cultural, and transport hub. It is also famous for its mix of ancient and modern architectural structures and for the Oktoberfest beer festival, which is held every October.

    With the new routes Vietnam Airlines will have four routes from Vietnam to Germany, including the Hanoi and HCMC routes to Frankfurt. It also has flights from Vietnam’s two biggest cities to Paris and London.

    The carrier’s chairman Dang Ngoc Hoa said in January that it would open more international routes this year, with possible destinations being Milan, Copenhagen, Seattle and Vancouver.

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  • Airlines add more flights amid high holiday demand

    Airlines add more flights amid high holiday demand

    Vietnam Airlines has increased the number of flights with up to 66,200 more seats to meet high demand during the upcoming holiday.

    The group announced Tuesday morning that 310 flights will be added between Jan. 25 and Feb. 24. Air travel demand is expected to rise during the seven-day Lunar New Year holiday in early February.

    This means Vietnam Airlines Group, which includes Pacific Airlines and Vietnam Air Services Company, will offer a total of 12,374 flights during the holiday season, up 10% from the same period last year.

    The new flights will mostly be on domestic routes between Ho Chi Minh City/Hanoi and Da Nang, Hai Phong, Vinh, Thanh Hoa, Quy Nhon, Hue and Quang Nam.

    The hike came after the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam asked airlines to increase their number of night flights to meet high demand as most seats have been occupied.

    As of Jan. 12 Vietnamese airlines had sold 80-100% of seats departing HCMC and Hanoi between Jan. 24 and Feb. 25, the authority said.

    Customers have been complaining that they have trouble booking tickets due to low supply and prices being higher than in previous years.

  • Vietnam Airlines joins the AAPA

    Vietnam Airlines joins the AAPA

    Vietnam Airlines is the latest member to join the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), as announced by a press release on 14 November, with immediate effect.

    As part of the AAPA, Vietnam Airlines will participate in the Association’s meetings and joint activities, where members can stay updated and exchange information about the trends in the aviation industry. Airline members also receive in-depth insights, forecasts, and advice from the group’s regular monthly distribution.

    On 9-10 November 2023, the AAPA organised its 67th Assembly of Presidents in Singapore, which gathered airline leaders to discuss relevant issues in air transport and aviation, with a core focus on sustainability. The conclusion of the event, which was hosted by airline member Singapore Airlines, saw the passing of a series of resolutions covering sustainability, aviation safety and regulatory impact.

    Airline leaders have agreed to a ‘collective’ target of 5 percent SAF utilisation by 2030, and the trade association is calling on governments, fuel producers, airports, and other industry organisations to come together globally, to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and push the ambitious goal to carbon neutrality by 2050.

    The AAPA’s membership now stands at 15 airlines, which include Air Astana, Air India, ANA, Bangkok Airways, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, Eva Air, Garuda Indonesia, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Royal Brunei Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways and Vietnam Airlines.

  • Vietnam Airlines postpones annual general meeting for 4th time

    Vietnam Airlines postpones annual general meeting for 4th time

    Vietnam Airlines has canceled its annual general meeting for a fourth time this year pleading “unfinished” preparations even as it continues to struggle with losses.

    The state-owned carrier informed the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange Monday that its meeting scheduled for Nov. 22 has been moved to Dec. 16.

    The AGM was first scheduled for June 20 but the company has been postponing it repeatedly.

    Public companies are required to hold their AGM within four to six months from the end of the financial year.

    In the first nine months of this year the company posted a loss of VND3.3 trillion (US$135.34 million) as against VND7.75 trillion in the same period last year.

    Its revenues were up 32% to VND68.09 trillion.

    Vietnam Airlines’ HVN shares have been restricted to trading in the afternoons only as a penalty for its delay in submitting its financial reports. They have plunged 21% this year to VND10,950.

  • Vietnam Airlines to auction three narrow-body aircraft

    Vietnam Airlines to auction three narrow-body aircraft

    Vietnam Airlines is set to auction three narrow-body aircraft Airbus A321CEO at a starting price of $5 million apiece in this quarter.

    The three jets were made in 2007 and are currently at Noi Bai International Airport and Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

    In 2020 the state-owned carrier sold five Airbus A321 aircraft for $7.4 million apiece.

    Selling jets was part of the airline’s plan to restructure its fleet and increase post-pandemic income.

    The airline now has a fleet of 94 jets, including 65 A321 jets with an average age of just over 9 years, according to aircraft data provider Planespotters.

    Vietnam Airlines served over 10 million passengers in the first half of this year, up 23.6% year-on-year.

    Its revenue rose by nearly half to over $1.91 billion, almost the same as in 2019.

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  • Vietnam Airlines shares restricted to afternoon trading only

    Vietnam Airlines shares restricted to afternoon trading only

    Over 2.2 billion HVN shares of Vietnam Airlines will be restricted from trading in the afternoon only, starting from July 12, due to the company’s delay in submitting its financial reports.

    The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange made the restriction decision on Wednesday after the airline was more than 45 days late in filing its audited 2022 financial figures.

    Vietnam Airlines in early May requested more time to compile its report, saying that its auditor needed to review and evaluate more data.

    The airline’s unaudited financial report for last year showed an accumulated loss of VND32 trillion ($1.35 billion).

    Vietnam Airlines, however, seemed to be recovering in the first half this year, transporting 10.14 million passengers, up 23.6% year-on-year.

    Its revenue rose nearly 50% to over VND45.2 trillion, almost the same as in 2019 before the pandemic.

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  • Vietnam Airlines pays local pilots 41% less than foreigners

    Vietnam Airlines pays local pilots 41% less than foreigners

    The average monthly salary of Vietnamese pilots working for Vietnam Airlines was 41% lower than their foreign colleagues’ last year, a gap that caused many to quit.

    A recent report by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, which flagged this, said the 829 Vietnamese pilots working for the carrier received on average VND85 million (US$3,620) a month while the 152 foreign pilots got paid VND145 million.

    The latter work for Vietnam Airlines through a third-party agency and are not directly on its payroll.

    The airline plans to increase its payroll by 2025, when it will have 1,044 Vietnamese pilots.

    The average salary of Vietnamese pilots will be hiked by 59% by then to VND134.8 million.

    But foreign pilots’ salaries will be increased by 93% to VND279.2 million, increasing the wage gap between to 52%.

    The ministry said the carrier could not afford higher salaries for Vietnamese pilots, and the intense competition in the country’s skies means many pilots look for jobs elsewhere.

    Thirty five have quit since 2020, and more are set to leave when their contracts expire.

    The decline in number of Vietnamese pilots will place an even bigger burden on the airline since it will have to hire more foreign pilots, whose compensation is around VND2.5 billion a year each, including accommodation, insurance and others.

    Assuming the airline loses 120-140 Vietnamese pilots every year, it would have to spend VND300-600 billion on hiring foreign replacements and face greater risk of flight cancelations.

    It is therefore necessary to increased the salary budget to ensure stable operations, the ministry said.

    If it is increased by VND300 billion annually, the current 41% salary gap would decrease to 30%, and if the hike is VND800 billion, the gap would shrink to 10%, it said.

    But the increase must be tied to commitments from the airline that it would achieve its profit and revenue targets so that its losses do not bloat further, it added.

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  • Vietnam Airlines shares face restrictions for delay in filing financial statements

    Vietnam Airlines shares face restrictions for delay in filing financial statements

    Vietnam Airlines’ HVN shares will see trading restrictions from May 12 for failure to file its results in time.

    The carrier has been more than 30 days late in submitting its audited consolidated financial statements for 2022, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) said in a statement.

    At the end of March Vietnam Airlines had sought permission from HoSE to delay the submission, but its request was turned down.

    Now its shares will not be traded for at least two days a week.

    The airline said earlier this month that due to its ongoing restructuring, it needs more time to complete its financial statements.

    If the company fails to submit them 45 days after the deadline, its shares will be restricted.

    HoSE had warned in February that HVN could be delisted if it posted losses for 2022.

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  • Lender NCB wants to sell 11% stake in Bamboo Airways pledged as collateral

    Lender NCB wants to sell 11% stake in Bamboo Airways pledged as collateral

    National Citizen Commercial Bank plans to seek shareholders’ permission this month to sell 203 million shares, equivalent to a 11% stake, of Bamboo Airways.

    Property developer FLC pledged some of the shares as collateral for loans.

    FLC and its disgraced former chairman, Trinh Van Quyet, who is in custody for alleged stock market manipulation, had also used Bamboo Airways shares for borrowing from OCB and Sacombank.

    The carrier last month sought shareholders’ approval to increase its capital by VND9.57 trillion ($408.15 million) to deal with debts, but failed to get it.

    It plans to convene another extraordinary general meeting this month to raise the issue again.

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  • Vietnam Airlines posts profit in Q1

    Vietnam Airlines posts profit in Q1

    Vietnam Airlines posted a pre-tax profit of VND19.3 billion ($822,500) in the first quarter after losses in 12 consecutive quarters. The airline saw revenue doubling year-on-year to VND23.64 trillion, the highest quarter record since Q1 2020.

    It is near the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. The state-owned carrier however still posted a post-tax loss of VND37.3 billion.

    The pre-tax profit, however, is still considered a strong signal of recovery after the carrier plunged into major financial difficulties due to Covid-19.

    The airline said that in the first quarter of this year, the domestic market recovered, and China lifted its Covid-19 restrictions, which resulted in a surge in passenger numbers.

    There was also high occupancy on flights to the United States., Europe and Australia, it added.

    The company served 5.1 million passengers in the first quarter, up 63% year-on-year. A weaker U.S. dollar and lower-than-expected fuel prices also helped reduce costs.

    But Vietnam Airlines, which operates Pacific Airlines and Vietnam Air Services Company, still sees high risks in the future as the domestic market remains 40% lower than pre-pandemic.

    It added that global geopolitical tensions will likely still affect the aviation industry in 2024.

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  • Vietravel Airlines to get three more planes in Q3

    Vietravel Airlines to get three more planes in Q3

    Vietravel Airlines is expecting to expand its fleet to six by adding three more aircraft in the third quarter following a plan set out from the early days of its establishment.

    The move in association with a recruitment program slated for May in Ho Chi Minh City aims to help the carrier be ready for its market expansion targets.

    The airline, which debuted in late 2020, is currently operating six domestic routes connecting Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and major tourist destinations of Da Nang, Phu Quoc and Quy Nhon, along with two international ones connecting Hanoi, HCMC and Bangkok.

    It is also partnering with a company from the Republic of Korea to provide 11 charter flights on the Daegu-Cam Ranh route in the period from March 28 to May 7 with one flight every five days.

    As of the first quarter of 2023, Vietravel Airlines had operated over 11,600 flights safely and carried close to 2.5 million passengers, with an average occupancy rate of 93.7%.

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  • Airlines propose scrapping airfare caps

    Airlines propose scrapping airfare caps

    Airlines and some experts have proposed hiking and eventually removing domestic airfare caps to support businesses in difficult times.

    Last year, no domestic airlines were profitable because of higher fuel costs, foreign exchange rates, and interest rates, while airfare caps have been kept unchanged for eight years. On Friday, participants at a conference on supporting the aviation industry said that the caps should be removed.

    Trinh Ngoc Thanh, executive vice president of Vietnam Airlines, said domestic airfare caps were last adjusted in 2015.

    The current maximum fare is VND2.2 million ($96) for routes under 850 kilometers and VND3.75 million for those above 1,280 kilometers.

    Airfare caps are placed only on domestic routes, not on international ones. As a result, the highest airfare of domestic flights is sometimes 40% lower than that of the HCMC – Singapore route, Thanh said.

    Thanh and Nguyen Manh Quan, CEO of Bamboo Airways, proposed that the Ministry of Transport hike the airfare caps and then eventually scrap them to ensure the aviation industry’s sustainable development.

    Quan also proposed the State still apply airfare caps on routes operated by only one airline, but let the market self-regulate routes tapped by at least two carriers.

    Hoai Nam, a Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board member, said: “Removing the airfare caps will help domestic airlines improve revenues and profits during peak periods.”

    He said that at present, no other countries in the world apply airfare caps, and none of the five domestic airlines has a monopoly position, so the caps should be removed as soon as possible.

    However, if the caps are scraped, airlines must not negotiate with one another about airfares, seriously violating the Competition Law and affecting the interests of passengers, Nam added.

    Tran Tho Dat, a member of the prime minister’s Economic Advisory Group, suggested the management agency should come up with a formula for regulating airfares like that for retail prices of gasoline and oil products.

    “If there are no caps, we should create a formula, an open airfare range, to ensure fair competition and people’s interests,” he said.

    In 2021, the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam proposed removing airfare caps on routes operated by three airlines or more to increase competition by service quality to serve passengers who are willing to pay higher than the ceiling price.

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  • Airlines report losses in 2022

    Airlines report losses in 2022

    Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet incurred losses of VND10 trillion (US$423.7 million) and VND2.17 trillion last year mainly due to higher fuel prices and forex volatility.

    Vietnam Airlines reported consolidated revenues of VND71 trillion, higher than the combined revenues of 2020 and 2021 but only 70% of pre-pandemic levels.

    Last year, its losses of VND10 trillion took its accumulated losses to VND34 trillion.

    Vietjet reported revenues of VND39.34 trillion, more than triple the 2021 figure.

    The average price of jet fuel jumped to $130 per barrel last year from $72 the previous year. At one time in mid-2022 it was selling at over $160.

    The increase in bank interest rates and the soaring dollar also contributed to losses.

    Vietnam Airlines lost over VND2.25 trillion due to exchange rate differences last year as against only VND173 billion the previous year.

    Vietjet incurred exchange rate losses of roughly VND570 billion in the fourth quarter of last year compared with less than VND4 billion in the same period of 2021.

    Two other carriers, Bamboo Airways and Vietravel Airlines, have not released their financial reports for 2022, but experts said they are unlikely to have made profits.

    Vietnamese carriers transported 11 million foreign passengers in 2022, up 22 times from 2021 but down 70% from 2019, the year before the Covid pandemic began.

    They also carried 55 million domestic passengers, up 3.7 times from 2021.

    Many aviation-related service providers reported big profits, however.

    Southern Airports Services JSC (Sasco) reported pre-tax profits of VND230 billion, up 77 times from 2021.

    The profits of Saigon Ground Services (SGN) and Saigon Cargo Service Corporation (SCS) reached VND1 trillion and VND696 billion, respectively.

    The Airports Corporation of Vietnam posted pre-tax profits of over VND8.8 trillion as against less than VND1 trillion the previous year.

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