Vietnam’s low-cost carrier VietJet Aviation CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao said that the airline has ended 2020 with no losses, after reporting a small profit.
“We are proud that we have gone through 2020’s pandemic with positive financial results. We didn’t make losses, and made a little profit in 2020. Compared to other airlines in the world, and other airlines in Vietnam, we are one of the very few airlines with positive consolidated financial results in 2020,” VietJet CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao said in an interview for Reuters Next virtual conference on January 14, 2021.
According to the CEO, the airline did not need to lay off or furlough staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that it was a good opportunity to use this time in order to push more training for its staff. ”This is a golden time for our staff to focus on training. In 2020 we conducted approx. 27,000 training sessions, half of which is online training,” Thao said, adding that the airline hopes to expand its investments in new aircraft.
Currently, VietJet has a fleet of 71 aircraft. The fleet consists of all Airbus aircraft, namely Airbus A320s and A321neos. In addition, the airline has eight aircraft on order, one of which is Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, according to planespotters.net data.
Successful virus control with a series quarantine and tracking measures in Vietnam led VietJet to restart domestic operations and add eight new domestic routes to meet increasing air travel demand within Vietnam on June 18, 2020. To this day, Vietnam counts only a total of 1,531 COVID-19 cases and 35 deaths.