VietNamNet Bridge – Three new private airlines have joined the aviation market after they received official operation licenses from the management agency. However, the market still cannot see the benefit brought by the new airlines.

The appearance of Air Mekong on the aviation market has been applauded by both travelers and management agency which always encourages more and more investors to join the market.

Right now there are six air carriers in Vietnam, including three private run airlines, Indochina Airlines (ICA), Air Mekong (AMK ) and VietJet Air (VJA).

However, to date, VJA has not made any official announcement about its plan to provide first-class commercial flights. Meanwhile, ICA has been bogged down with debts and hunted by creditors. As such, AMK remains the only private airline operating to compete with two elderly colleagues, Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar Pacific Airlines.

AMK began providing commercial flights one month ago. However, the period of operation is long enough for troubles to occur.

Bui Thi Nhung, the owner of an air ticketing and booking agency on Giai Phong Road in Tan Binh District told Saigon Tiep Thi newspaper that the service provided by the airline is bad. According to Nhung, her agent sold 30 tickets to passengers whom planned to fly from Da Nang to HCM City between October 31 and November 15. The passengers purchased the air tickets on September 30 at 500,000 dong per ticket. However, on October 30, AMK suddenly announced that the flights will be delayed until November 16 and will not take off on October 31 as previously scheduled.

With the changes, the airline proposed to pay money back to passengers or advised passengers to book tickets for the flights to take off after November 15.

“The airline did not offer any support to passengers even though all of the passengers had prepared for the flights already. The representative of the airline simply said that the competent agency still has not allowed any flights, and he said he hopes to receive sympathy from passengers,” Nhung said.

The similar situation also occurred with the passengers who planned to buy tickets for a HCM City-Da Lat route. Pham Le Minh Dinh in HCM City said that on September 30, he booked a ticket online for a flight to Da Lat. The flight was slated for November 5. However, on November 1, when he tried to access the airline’s booking system to book another ticket, he could not find any information about the flight. Only after contacting the airline, did he realize that the flight would only take off on November 16.
“AMK did not contact passengers to inform them about the flight cancellations, and did not offer compensation for the delay, even though the airline collected money one month ago,” Dinh said.

“My business plans have been interrupted. Now I have to purchase tickets from another airline at higher price, because I booked tickets just some days before my departure date,” he complained.

Saigon Tiep Thi said that its reporters tried to contact Truong Thanh Vu, Business and Service Director of AMK, but the director stated that he is too busy to talk with the reporters.

Meanwhile, answering questions raised by reporters on the phone, Vo Huy Cuong, Head of the Air Transport Division under the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) said CAAV has granted a license allowing AMK to provide 21 flights a week from Hanoi, HCM City – Da Nang and vice versa on the period between October 30 and November 16. Cuong added that the airline has sold 200 tickets for the flights, but he does not know why the airline does not intend to fly.

Cuong confirmed that until November 2, CAAV had not received any reports from AMK on the flights delayed until November 16.

As for ICA, after one year of flying, the airline has disappeared from the market, bringing with it a huge debt of 800 million dong it owes to booking agents, and tens of  billions of dong worth of air petrol it owes to its suppliers.

About ICA, Cuong said that the operation license of the airline expired in May 2010.

“CAAV, as well as the Ministry of Transport, wants more and more investors to join the aviation market, because the competition will help the market develop in a healthy way. However, it seems that the operation and finance capability of private airlines remain limited,” Cuong said. “They (the airlines) were very good during their first stage of operation, but then they incurred losses and moved closer to the brink of bankruptcy,”.

Source: Saigon tiep thi