AirAsia Ready To Enter Vietnam

AirAsia – The Malaysian low-cost airline plans to start a new low-cost airline in Vietnam – fastest develop carrier market in South East Asia. As the 5th largest aviation market in the region, passenger traffic in Vietnam has doubled since 2013.

According to Ministry of Planning and Investment, the company has just signed an agreement with Gumin Co., Hai Au Aviation Joint Stock Co. and businessman Tran Trong Kien for the venture, which is expected to start flying early next year, AirAsia said in a statement to the stock exchange. Gumin will own about 70 percent of the new venture, with AirAsia holding the rest. Expected, the new airline will take off in early 2018.

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Vietnam is the latest country is in the plan of this low-cost carrier to seeking to build a pan-Asian budget airline, as the 28 percent growth in passenger traffic was triple the pace in other Southeast Asian nations.

AirAsia has been operating for many years in Indonesia, Thailand, India and Japan and has pursued a low-cost, long-haul model for international travel through its AirAsia X sub-brand. The airline has spent billions of dollars to ordered hundreds of planes Airbus for growth, and is in the process of selling a plane-leasing unit to raise more cash.