MOT has proposed that the government submit to the National Assembly a plan on amending the Law on Civil Aviation because the latter contains inadequate regulations.

Currently, the development of aircraft fleets is determined by air carriers themselves. The number of aircrafts owned by airlines has exceeded the state management agency’s aviation safety monitoring capability.

Therefore, MOT believes that it is necessary to have a regulation that state management agencies be responsible for assessing the adaptability of infrastructure and aviation safety monitoring capability, so that airlines can draw up business and aircraft equipment plans.

Meanwhile, Vietjet said controlling airlines’ expansion plans is unreasonable in the context of Vietnam’s deeper integration in the world market. The control also contradicts current Vietnamese laws on businesses’ rights. This will lead to restrictions of enterprises’ business freedom stipulated in Article 7 of the Enterprise Law, and Article 5 of the Investment Law.

In principle, airlines have the right to buy aircraft not only to develop their fleets and increase transport capacity, but also to serve their business purposes as they can re-lease or lease them. This is a common and the business is not prohibited by law.

A representative of Vietjet said fleet expansion also aims at supporting international fight networks and codeshare cooperation with other airlines. This is a legitimate right of airlines which is recognized by law.

Vietnam Airlines thinks the proposal is reasonable because it allows state management agencies to regulate fleets to be sure that they develop in a way to fit management capability and aviation industry development.

Replying to the criticism, MOT affirmed that the regulation only aims at better control of the development of fleets to ensure that the fleets fit airport infrastructure.

Meanwhile, airlines still have the right to implement their business plans to buy to release or resell under contracts with partners if they don’t put aircraft into direct use.

MOT pointed out the investigation of aircraft accidents is another problem. The current Vietnam Civil Aviation Law assigns aviation authorities to investigate aircraft accident cases. However, since 2016, ICAO (the International Civil Aviation Organization) has required member states to separate the independent aircraft accident agency from civil aviation authorities. 

Luong Bang