Vietnam is probably the only Southeast Asian country to come out unscathed by Covid-19, with early preventive measures and subsequently enduring low cases, the fastest growing nation in the region is set to take to the skies one again.
Its premier airline, Vietjet is looking to capture the travel market once regional flights resumes, the airline is already gearing itself by adding thirty-four new routes, increasing the flight network to 139, including 44 domestic routes and 95 international routes. Vietjet has already reached a new milestone with more than 25 million passengers transported, reaching an accumulated 100 million passengers.
Its phenomenal growth will give AirAsia something to worry about, having dominated the low cost flying for more than 2 decades, the Malaysian carrier will now be competing with a real contender for the sky routes. While Malaysians are still reeling from the pandemic and flying being the last thing on anyone mind, Vietjet is going on an offensive, as soon as the domestic market resumed ahead of most countries, it implemented a campaign called “Returning to the sky” and inaugurated eight new routes, increasing the domestic flight network to a total of 53 routes. Thai Vietjet is also the first airline to reopen operations in Phuket Airport, expanding its network with five new domestic routes in Thailand.
Currently, the Vietnamese government is implementing a number of initiatives to support airlines such as tax and fee reductions and loans with low rates. With this, Vietjet is expected to operate 90 aircraft with over 118,000 flights and transport more than 20 million passengers by the end of 2020.
The carrier will also continue to grow its customer base and activities on its e-commerce platforms while digitally transforming its operating systems and procedures with advanced management software and technology.
Looks like Vietjet has read AirAsia playbook and will be taking on carrier on its own turf, but with the backing of Vietnam government scaling will be much faster while the latter is still struggling.
