VietJet Air to Launch in December

Posted 05/12/2011

Vietnamese start-up carrier VietJet Air has announced that it will launch commercial flights on the country’s busiest domestic route between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi from December 25.  The privately-owned carrier secured its operating licence in November 2007 but it has taken it over four years and various legal and political obstacles to formalise its inauguration. 

The airline will operate three Airbus A320 which are being acquired from lessor ALAFCO and will initially offer a twice daily basis between Vietnam’s two largest cities; increasing to three flights per day from January 10, 2012.  It has also revealed plans to introduce flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang from February 1, 2012 but it has not yet formalised a schedule for this route, while links to other destinations in Vietnam and Southeast Asia are expected to be launched from the middle of 2012 when the last of the A320s is delivered.

There are already more than 47,000 seats on offer in each direction between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with more than 200 weekly flights, many of which are operated using widebodied equipment.  Vietnam Airlines has the largest share of this capacity (78.9 per cent), but Pacific Airlines also provides up to eight flights per day and Air Mekong has almost 20 rotations per week using its Bombardier CRJ900 regional jets. 

An estimated 3.2 million O&D passengers travelled on the route in the last year, a growing market up 13.2 per cent on the previous year.  Average one-way air fares have remained stagnant at $264 across the last two years but will likely now take a dip as the low-cost entrant enters the route and the established carriers reduce fares to maintain their own market share.

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