VietNamNet Bridge - Bloomberg has reported that to realize the ambition to become "Asia's Emirates", the low-cost airline Vietjet plans to implement an IPO (initial public offering) in the second quarter of 2016, with 30% of shares possibly sold to foreign partners, the maximum level permitted by the Vietnamese government.

VietJet's ambition is to become "Asia's Emirates".

This is one of the moves, according Vietjet Air, to help promote growth, besides the network development plan, in order to turn Vietjet Air into one of the leading airlines in Asia.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, CEO of Vietjet Air, the only private airline in Vietnam, said the specific time for the IPO would depend on the actual situation of the domestic and the world market. This firm has not revealed the amount of capital that it wants to mobilize through the IPO.

“We plan to make VietJet a global airline. We look at Emirates, which came from a country with a small population and has become a global airline. We want to make VietJet the Emirates of Asia," Thao told Bloomberg in an interview last Friday.

VietJet carried 9.3 million passengers in 2015, an increase of 66 percent from 2014. Revenue soared 205 percent last year to VND10.9 trillion ($488 million) while net income rose to almost VND1 trillion. The airline expects revenue to double this year and passenger capacity to reach 15 million this year.

VietJet will probably surpass national carrier Vietnam Airlines as the nation’s biggest domestic carrier this year, according to CAPA Centre for Aviation.

Vietnam is expected to rank among the world’s 10 fastest-growing aviation markets in the next two decades, according to the International Air Transport Association.

VietJet is seeking to expand in a market that’s grown 20 percent annually in the last three years.

It has just signed a $3.04 billion deal to buy Pratt & Whitney engines. The company plans to add a dozen planes annually to its fleet of 42 planes at year-end, Thao said. It wants to have a fleet of 100 by 2020.

According to Thao, Vietjet also plans to expand international routes to cities in South Korea, Malaysia, China and Japan this year.

"We are ready to go to the next level. We’re ready to take the opportunities that the country’s international integration will bring," Thao said.

Bloomberg/VietNamNet