A Bamboo Airways aircraft. Its fleet will also be extended from the current 25 aircraft to 100, with 12 wide-body Boeing Dreamliner 787-9. — Photo courtesy of Bamboo Airways
New budget carrier Bamboo Airways earned an estimated pre-tax profit of VND303 billion (US$$13 million) in 2019, said its CEO Dang Tat Thang.
This figure is expected to surge to VND1 trillion (more than $43 million) this year, Thang said, adding that the airline is also striving to list on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange in the second quarter of this year.
Late last year, the airline announced its plan to launch an initial public offering at a starting price of VNĐ60,000 per share and its target at $1 billion worth of capitalisation.
It is also choosing strategic investors among potential and experienced investors from the US, Japan and Europe with an aim to sell not below VND160,000 per share.
Last year, Bamboo Airways operated nearly 20,000 flights, carrying about three million passengers. Its punctuality rate was more than 94 per cent.
The airline was also awarded the Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) certificate from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) within a year since its establishment.
IOSA Programme is an internationally recognised and accepted evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline. Airlines are re-evaluated every two years with about 1,000 criteria. Only about 16 per cent of airlines worldwide have won the certificate.
The IATA made its evaluations throughout Bamboo Airways’ operational departments, including operating and maintenance centres, safety, security and quality assurance board, flight crew, aircraft ground handling unit, and technical and maintenance department.
In his speech at the ceremony in Ha Noi last week, Thang described the certification as one of the important and firm foundations for Bamboo Airways to reach the targets of providing 5-star services, expanding its flight network and international cooperation in the years to come and becoming an IATA member.
The airline set the goal of achieving 30 per cent of domestic market share this year, expand its network to 85 routes, including 60 domestic and 25 foreign ones.
Its fleet will also be extended from the current 25 aircraft to 100, with 12 wide-body Boeing Dreamliner 787-9. In late 2019, it received the first Boeing Dreamliner 787-9, becoming the first private airline in Viet Nam to use wide-body aircraft. — VNS