Vietjet Air is the latest airline to offer low-cost transport to many cities around Asia. It is based in Noi Ban International Airport in Hanoi. The airline launched its inaugural flight between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on December 25, 2011. It was initially intended to start operations as early as late 2008, but funding and regulatory problems delayed its launch. Vietjet Air has since expanded its services to include both additional cities in Vietnam as well as international cities in many countries across Asia.
The airline has a current fleet of seventy-five aircraft consisting entirely of Airbus A320s and A321s. However, as the airline continues its expansion around Asia, it has placed orders for an additional twenty Airbus A321s and two-hundred Boeing 737s in three configurations.
Domestic Service
Vietjet Air currently serves six cities in Vietnam, including Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Can Tho, Da Lat, Da Nang, and Hai Phong.
As a low-cost carrier LLC) they have made it easier and cheaper for people in these cities to travel around the country by offering full-schedule of flight times.
International Service
The airline is one of the bright spots in the tourism industry of Asia, as an LLC it serves to offer service to many cities that were too small to be of interest to the large international carriers.
They compete with Air Asia, TigerAir, Scoot Tigerair, Nok Air, Bangkok Airways, Jetstar and others to serve the smaller regional international airports of Asia as well as the international airports of capital cities.
They currently are listing service to the following countries:
- Cambodia – 2 Destinations
- China – 2 destinations plus Hong Kong
- India – 2 Destinations
- Indonesia – 1 Destination
- South Korea – 3 Destinations
- North Korea – 1 Destination
- Macau – 1 Destination
- Malaysia – 1 Destination
- Singapore – 1 Destination
- Taiwan – 3 Destinations
- Thailand – 6 Destinations
Offering More Choices to Travellers to Asia
As more and more travellers seek low-cost transport to many regional cities around Asia, Vietjet Air offers them more flexibility in their travel schedules by virtue of another airline adding to the available low-cost flights to these cities.
The increased traffic is also valuable to cities who seek to increase their tourism profile and need more airlines to service their regional airports to do so. The increase of LLCs also means that more travellers can afford to see the world and spread their money among these smaller cities, rather than have a concentration of tourists in high-traffic areas of a country.
The phenomenon of LLCs has been good for tourists and good for the cities that these airlines serve. The increase in the number of these LLCs means that their extensive customer base still hasn’t reached its limit.
With the world’s favourite tourist attractions being ‘loved to death’ by hordes of well-meaning tourists, the proliferation of these LLCs offering cheap and easy access to new areas of the world may be a saving grace. Tourist attractions that are suffering under the strain of too many tourists may slowly see those tourists widening their interests to prefer other destinations.
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