VietJet Air plots international expansion
VietJet Air is planning to accelerate its expansion plans this year.
The low-cost carrier will launch its first ever international flights this month, connecting Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) with Bangkok. And speaking to Travel Daily last week, VietJet’s Business Development Director, Desmond Lin, said the airline plans to expand its network across the region.
“Our business plan for the first year of operation has been beyond our expectations,” Lin told Travel Daily in an interview. “As you know have now has a domestic network of up to nine routes and one international one connecting HCMC to Bangkok to be launched on 10 February 2013. Together with fleet expansion in a single year, VietJetAir has been the fastest growing private carrier in Vietnam so far.”
When asked about the scope of the airline’s future expansion, Lin said VietJet planned to spread its wings across the Asia Pacific region, into “Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, China, Korean and Japan”, from both HCMC and Hanoi.
This growth will be fuelled by the expansion of its fleet which will increase from six to 20 all-economy Airbus A320 aircraft by 2015. By this time, VietJet expects to carry between seven and eight million passengers per year.
VietJet launched independently in late 2011, following a decision by the Vietnamese government to bar a joint venture it had planned to create with AirAsia. Asked if VietJet is still in discussions with Tony Fernandes and his team, Lin said it is “still waiting the management board’s decision”.