This award is given to the airline that has been the biggest standout strategically during the year, has had the greatest impact on the development of the airline industry and has provided a benchmark for others to follow.
The Vietnamese airline was selected for its rapid growth, high level of profitability and successful partial privatization.
“Vietnam Airlines has emerged as a successful and fast growing full service airline group despite intensifying competition in its home market. The group’s dual brand strategy with Jetstar Pacific and pursuit of strategic partnerships have significantly improved its long-term position. These strengths helped the airline achieve a highly successful partial privatization in early 2017 while maintaining a high level of profitability,” Mr. Peter Harbison, Executive Chairman of CAPA said.
Mr. Peter Harbison, Executive Chairman of CAPA, presents the 2017 CAPA Asia Pacific Airline of the Year award to Ms. Le Thi Khanh Chi, Deputy Director of Corporate Planning and Development, Vietnam Airlines.
For his part, Mr. Le Hong Ha, Executive Vice President of Vietnam Airlines held, "We are deeply honored that CAPA has awarded Vietnam Airlines with the Asia Pacific Airline of the Year. The award is a recognition of our company’s strategy and transformation efforts over the past years. The award is a motivator for us to continue to 'reach further' and reaffirm our leading position and become a favorite airline in Asia Pacific region."
According to CAPA, with the growth rate in passenger traffic at 19% in 2016, Vietnam Airlines is the fastest growing flag carrier in Southeast Asia and one of the fastest growing full-service airlines globally. In 2016, Vietnam Airlines became one of the only four airlines in Southeast Asia (and one of just two full service airlines) to surpass 20 million annual passengers.
Vietnam Airlines has been consistently profitable over the last decade. The parent airline reported a record profit before tax of USD 73 million in 2016 despite intensifying competition. The group’s profit reached USD 114 million in 2016 and exceeded USD 100 million in the first three quarters of 2017. Vietnam Airlines operates a young and modern fleet and is the first airline in the world to simultaneously operate both Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s hence. The airline is also committed to renewing its narrow body fleet with A321NEOs from 2018 and constantly reinforcing 4-Star service quality.
Vietnam Airlines completed listing shares on Hanoi Stock Exchange under the stock code HVN in Jan 2017, becoming one of the first and largest state owned Airlines in Vietnam to partially privatize. In addition to the public float, Japan’s All Nippon Airways Holdings acquired a 8.77% stake in Vietnam Airlines in 2016 as part of a new strategic partnership.
Vietnam Airlines has embraced partnerships with many airlines, also recently forging a joint venture with Air France covering the Vietnam-Europe market, and pursued a successful dual brand model with Jetstar Pacific to further increase its competitive position in domestic market.
At the Summit, Mr. Le Hong Ha attended the executive panel, “The full service airlines’ perspective” with the attendance of Andrew Herdman - Director General of Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA); Giorgio Callegari - Deputy General Director for Strategy and Alliances of Aeroflot - Russian Airlines and Cesar Pereira- Embraer VP Asia Pacific. Speaking at the summit, Mr. Le Hong Ha shared his insight of Vietnam Airlines’ strategies of developing the fleet and personalized services as well as digitalizing distribution channels to serve all customer segments.
Chung Anh