VietNamNet Bridge - Nearly a week after a Vietjet Air flight landed in the wrong city, Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang apologized for the incident after a meeting held on Wednesday.

Minister Thang at the meeting.

The flight was scheduled to land in Da Lat but instead went to Khanh Hoa.

The meeting was attended by Vietjet Air representatives, officials of the two other domestic airlines Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar Pacific, and representatives of the state aviation management bodies.

"On behalf of the Ministry of Transport, I would like to offer an apology to the people and the passengers for this incident," Minister Thang said.

During the meeting, Mr. Thang several times questioned the representatives of the Vietnam Civil Aviation Administration (CAAV) about whether Vietjet Air was capable to continue offering flights.

"This is a serious incident, which directly endangered flight safety. It is a lucky thing that there was no consequences from it. But we will be lucky forever?"Minister Thang said.

With this statement, he requested the CAAV to reconsider the flying conditions of Vietjet Air and to not allow the carrier to receive more aircraft, if it is unqualified.

Currently, Vietjet Air has 15 aircraft and it plans to have dozens more in the coming years.

Vice Minister Pham Quy Tieu said many mistakes were made by the flight attendants, the pilots, the flight controller and the air controllers.

The chief pilot drove the aircraft straight towards to Cam Ranh and thought that the flight was on the right path until the aircraft was only five miles from the airport.

At that time, the aircraft could not be redirected and it had to land. The air controllers also erred as  they only announced that the plane was on the wrong path 28 minutes after the aircraft took off.

Minister Thang asked the CAAV to tighten supervision over Vietjet Air. He said that private airlines had developed rapidly in scale but the professional qualifications and workforce could not keep up with the scale of growth.

Minister Thang also proposed to reprimand the CAAV chief for reporting the incident late and withholding information. He said the ministry would impose more severe sanctions if similar incidents are repeated.

He asked all agencies to learn from the experience and review their operations.

On this occasion, the Minister also discussed the unfair competition in the airline industry. He said all aviation service businesses must be equitized.

Son Tung