Vietnam’s airline capacity surpasses pre-pandemic level

According to global travel data provider OAG, Vietnam ranks third in Southeast Asia, after Thailand and Indonesia. The capacity of Vietnam’s airlines is about 255,000 seats lower than in Thailand, with just over 6 million, and around 57 per cent of Indonesia's, at 10.1 million.

With 38,860 seats added to Tan Son Nhat airport in April 2023, it places sixth among business airports in Southeast Asia with a total of approximately 2.1 million seats, followed by Noi Bai Airport with nearly 1.6 million. With a capacity of just over 900,000 seats, Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City is the largest domestic route in the region.

Lion Air, Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet, Batik Air, and Singapore Airlines are now operating as many seats as they did in April 2019.

Beginning from June 1, Qatar Airways will also increase the frequency of its flights from both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Accordingly, there will be 12 weekly flights to and from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. From June 29 onward, it will increase the number from Ho Chi Minh City to 14.

Wendy Vu, country manager for Vietnam and Cambodia at Qatar Airways said, “Currently, western European, as well as Nordic cities, have been the busiest routes from Vietnam in the Qatar Airways’ network. We are thrilled to see that travel has improved again after our borders have opened for international travel.”

During the first quarter of 2023, Ho Chi Minh City has sat at number 10 for air arrivals in Asia, according to Amadeus’ Hospitality Market Insights Report in April.

Jonathan Tong, cluster head for airlines in Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific for Amadeus stated, "Amadeus booking data indicates very strong demand for travel to Vietnam in the first quarter of this year, with an increase of 2.8 times compared to the same period in 2022."

“In the first quarter of this year, we saw a search increase of 1.5 times compared to 2022 for travel to Ho Chi Minh City from the top 10 cities, namely Seoul, Bangkok, Busan, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Singapore, San Francisco, Toronto, London, and Taipei. Amadeus’ travel search data suggests that South Korea (Seoul and Busan) is a strong source market for Vietnam, with approximately 8 per cent of travel searches in that country being for locations in Vietnam,” he added.

Vietnam Airlines announces selection of lessors for 8 A320NEO aircraft Vietnam Airlines is planning to lease eight A320NEO aircraft for a period of 143 months, with delivery planned for 2024. The airline is expected to release the request proposal in early April.

Vietravel on back foot to meet charter capital goals Despite grandiose announcements and plans, the proposal to level up the fleet scale and raise charter capital at Vietravel Airlines is being questioned over its financial capacity.