Vietnam Airlines, Vietnam’s state-owned air carrier, is on track to achieve its profitability goals this year, with strong gains in cargo and passenger traffic for the first half of the year.
Consolidated pre-tax profit was estimated at VND 830 billion, equivalent to nearly 51% of the target for 2017, based on a 18% rise in year-on-year revenue to almost VND 43 trillion.
Vietnam Airlines increased its passenger total by 6% to 10.3 million for the first half, with domestic routes up 9.3%. Freight volume exceeded the carrier’s target with 24% increase.
As a certified 4-start global airline by Skytrax for good products and services across different travel classes, the airline reported an on-time rate of 91.3% in the first half with more than 70,400 flights were operated in the six month period. This was up 6.1 points year-over-year, and 3.3 points higher than the target.
Mid-2017 also marked two years since Vietnam Airlines started operating two next-generation aircraft, the Airbus A350-900 XWB and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Vietnam Airlines said it has boosted its Boeing 787-9 fleet to 11 aircraft with 165 pilots, and now has seven Airbus A350s with 106 pilots.
The additional aircraft will enable Vietnam Airlines to operate nonstop flights to the US West Coast, carrying 305 passengers in a three-class premium layout, said Airbus announcing the agreement on September last year.
Regarding the revenue growth, Vietnam Transport Minister Truong Quang Nghia said, as quoted by Travel Weekly, “Despite numerous difficulties, the corporation has achieved important development milestones, especially in maintaining the punctuality index, the service quality at a higher level compared to previous years, living up to our expectation as a national airline to fulfil the tasks assigned by the party and the state as well as to ensure the sustainable development of the business.”
