VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam’s Jetstar Pacific and Vietjet Air were among the fastest-growing air carriers in SE Asia in 2015. 

{keywords}

Vietjet Air is no longer alone in the low-cost carrier (LCC) competition on domestic flights as Jetstar has geared up as well.

Passengers have to pay VND1 million at maximum for one railway ticket on the HCMC-Da Nang route. Meanwhile, lucky passengers can book tickets with Vietjet Air at just VND299,000 and with Jetstar Pacific at VND280,000, not including surcharges.

Railways and road transport have every reason to fear ‘competitors in the sky’. Joining the aviation market in 2011, Vietjet Air has become well known in Vietnam for its airfare policy. 

There is now one more competitor – Jetstar Pacific. Vietnam Airlines bought a 70 percent stake in Jetstar Pacific in 2012 (the remaining 30 percent is being held by Qantas). However, only two years later, a full business strategy was produced for Jetstar Pacific.

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam’s Jetstar Pacific and Vietjet Air were among the fastest-growing air carriers in SE Asia in 2015.
Only in 2014, when Vietjet Air occupied half of the market, did Vietnam Airlines decide to develop Jetstar Pacific amid rapid expansion by VIetjet Air.

Analysts commented that the strong advantage of Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar Pacific is a ‘dual brand’ which takes full advantage of each other’s resources and cooperates in many fields, such as codeshare, marketing and sales and media campaigns.

In 2015, Vietnam Airlines transferred three air routes to Jetstar Pacific, including Hanoi/HCMC – Tuy Hoa and HCMC-Chu Lai.

On many domestic air routes, Jetstar Pacific offers airfares lower than Vietjet. While Vietjet succeeds with the policy on launching cheap tickets at noon every day, Jetstar offers low-cost tickets at 11 am. Vietjet once stirred up the market with tickets priced at VND9,000, while Jetstar now launches VND11,000 tickets.

In fact, this is not the first time Jetstar Pacific kicked off a low-airfare strategy. On the first days after it was taken over by Vietnam Airlines, it transferred air routes from Vinh/HCMC to Buon Ma Thuot from Air Mekong which went bankrupt. 

It launched a program with airfare of VND199,000. However, the campaign was not successful.

The current program run by Jetstar Pacific is more professional. It has diverse airfares, and has been expanding the fleet and air routes. 

Jetstar now has flights to/from 16 domestic airports, while VIetjet 18, which means Vietjet Air has more diversified routes. For example, Jetstar still doesn’t have the route to Can Tho. However, Jetstar has Nha Trang-Vinh route which Vietjet still doesn’t have.


Le Ha