VietNamNet Bridge – Air taxi was first served in Vietnam many years ago, but it has only become popular over the last year.

The information that a family in the central province of Nghe Tinh chartered a helicopter to carry a woman, who got traffic accident, to a prestigious hospital in Hanoi for treatment has caused curiosity among the public. It’s simply because air taxi service is yet to become popular in Vietnam.

Prior to that, Nguyen Thi Hai, a woman in the northern province of Lai Chau also spent 20,000 dollars, or 400 million dong, which is worth a fortune to every Vietnamese, to charter a helicopter which carried her to a hospital in Hanoi.

Hai accepted to pay such a big sum of money for the air service in an effort to rescue the child born prematurely. With the great efforts by the mother, the child survived in a miraculous way. This is the first child of Hai she suffered miscarriage many times in the past.

However, air service, though remaining unaffordable to many Vietnamese people, has become more popular in Vietnam for the last few years.

In 2011, an US billionaire paid 100,000 dollars in deposit to charter the EC155B1 from Vitours, a travel firm. The helicopter, which was scheduled to take off in Da Nang City, would carry him to have sightseeing in the central region of Vietnam.

According to Tan Minh Hanh from Vitours, which provides air taxi service, Vitours got the license to provide air taxi services in December 2010, while it served the first client in January 2011.

Hanh said the travel firm has received more orders since then, mostly from the clients who have the travel demand, or from the businessmen who want to make field works for their real estate development projects from above.

“One of every 10 clients of the firm stays at five star hotel, while one of every 10 clients staying at five star hotel uses air taxi service,” Hanh said about the demand.

Vitours now has two helicopters ready for the service. One of the helicopters is a MI 17, comprising of 24 seats, made in Russia. One would have to pay 4800 dollars per hour, or 100 million dong to charter the helicopter. The clients who plan to make films or take pictures, would have to pay higher fees, about 5700-6200 dollars per hour, or 114-124 million dong.

The other helicopter has the chartering fee double the MI 17, at 8400 dollar per hour, or 168 million dong. The fees would be 8950-9300 dollars per hour if clients want to make films or take pictures.

An executive of the Northern Air Service Company said that if serving travelers, helicopters would fly at the average speed of 100-250 kilometers per hour. However, in emergency case, the speed could be up to 350-500 kilometers per hour.

The biggest advantage of the flying machines is that they can land in resorts and the places with the area of 250 square meters, or on the top of the high rise buildings.

In fact, helicopters have been used for medical emergency cases for the last 10 years already. However, the main clients using the service are the petroleum companies operating on special terrains, or at the oil rigs in the open sea. Therefore, the service remains unfamiliar to the majority of people.

However, analysts believe that with the living standards of Vietnamese improved considerably, a lot of Vietnamese have become rich enough to afford the air taxi service.

The executive of the air service company said the company now has seven helicopters made in Russia and France. The chartering fees are between 4500 and 7300 dollars per hour.

Compiled by C. V