Anticipating the
increasing demand in the time to come, when the aviation market recovers from
the crisis, airlines have rushed to open new air routes and offer sales
promotion campaigns.

Just within
three months, the national flag air carrier Vietnam Airlines announced the
opening of eight domestic and international air routes, a two fold increase
over the same period of the last year. Besides, the air carrier has also
resumed the air routes, which were closed before, in order to satisfy the
increasingly high demand of passengers.

Most
recently, Vietnam Airlines has announced the opening of the Hanoi- Gao Xiong,
the second biggest city, located in the south of Taiwan with the population of 1.51
million people, from June 17, 2011. The air carrier will provide three flights
a week on its fourth direct route to Taiwan with Airbus 312s. The
flights will depart at 6.30 pm in Hanoi
and at 7.35 am local time and take 2.30 hours to reach the destinations.

In a plan
to expand the flight network, the air carrier has signed a series of credit
contracts worth multi-million dollars to purchase aircrafts and engines.
Vietnam Airline’s General Director, Pham Ngoc Minh said that in the aviation
transportation, safety must be put as the top priority. Therefore, the aircraft
purchase deals are very necessary to ensure high quality flights.

On May 23,
three international banks namely Citi, HSBC and DBS, signed an agreement with
Vietnam Airlines on the loan worth 475 million dollars to Vietnam Airlines to
fund the air carrier’s purchase of eight Airbus 321-231.

Under the
agreement, Vietnam Airlines will borrow 400 million dollars from HSBC and City
with the guarantee of the European credit institution. Meanwhile, the sum of 57
million dollars will be borrowed from HSBC and DBS under normal commercial
contracts.

Prior to
that, in 2007-2009, Vietnam Airlines signed the agreements on purchasing 26
Airbus 321-231 with French Airbus to expand the fleet.

Just
several days ago, Vietnam Airlines signed a contract on borrowing seven million
dollars from Ocean Bank which will support the air carrier’s plan to buy
provisioning engine for Airbust A321. This will be V2533-A5 provided by IAE
(International Aero Engine AG) with the delivery in May 2011.

VnExpress
has quoted its source as saying “that when some countries are facing crisis and
have to sell equipments and machines at low prices, Vietnam Airlines has been
trying to take full advantage of the opportunity to purchase aircrafts to serve
the plan to open more air routes.”

Vietnam
Airlines plans to open direct air routes from Hanoi
and HCM City
to the UK.
Besides, it is also moving ahead with the plan to open direct air routes to the
US.

According
to Dien dan doanh nghiep, Vietnam Airlines is running 80 air routes to 20
domestic destinations and 26 foreign destinations with 300 flights provided
every day. The airline plans to expand the fleet to 115 aircraft by 2015 and 170
by 2020, which will mostly comprise of Boeing 777, Airbus A330,
A321/320s/A350XWB, Boeing 787-9.

Another
airline, Air Mekong, has announced the opening of four domestic air routes,
departing from Hanoi or HCM City to Phu Quoc island, Con Dao island, Quy Nhon
and Pleiku over the last two months, even though Air Mekong is considered too
young, because it joined the market one year ago.

By opening
new air routes, Air Mekong also aims to increase its market share as soon as
possible, when the market still has room for it. To date, Air Mekong provides
flights on 15 domestic air routes. It has set up an ambitious plan on having 10
new aircraft in 2011, 14 more in 2012, 18 in 2013, and another 20 in 2014.

Jetstar
Pacific remains the only airline which has not opened new air routes so far
this year. However, it has resumed the Hanoi-Nha Trang air route in a trial
basis. After five months of developing the air route, the air carrier will
consider the operation of the air route in October to decide whether to provide
flights on the route for long term.

Dau tu has
quoted its sources as saying that Jetstar Pacific will purchase more Airbut 320
to have a fleet of 15 aircraft by 2014.

According
to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam CAAV, in 2011, Vietnamese air
carriers will serve 17.5 million passengers, an increase of 21 percent over
2010. CAAV also said that the opening of new air routes is considered the wise
move to prepare for the aviation market to recover in the time to come.

C. V