Vietjet President & CEO Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo delivers her speech at the AGM. —Photo courtesy of Vietjet

HCM CITY — Amid the global crisis sparked by COVID-19, Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company (HOSE: VJC) has created a foundation for recovery and will look to seize all opportunities for sustainable development from 2020 thanks to the resources of a robust management system, the airline’s modern fleet and flexible business strategies, especially its strong financial capacity.

The plan was announced by Vietjet during its 2020 Annual General Shareholders’ Meeting (AGM) to review business results from 2019 as well as vote for the approval of audited financial statement and discuss the company’s development plan for 2020 in HCM City on Saturday.

According to Vietjet, since the beginning of this year, the domestic aviation industry has been impacted severely in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the country has quickly resumed all domestic operations ahead of most other countries in the world.

As soon as the domestic market resumed, Vietjet quickly implemented a campaign called "Returning to the sky” and inaugurated eight new routes, increasing the domestic flight network to a total of 53 routes. Thai Vietjet - a joint venture between Vietjet and Thai airline Kan Air - is also the first airline to reopen operations in Phuket Airport, expanding its network with five new domestic routes in Thailand.

After completing the resumption and expansion of the domestic flight network, Vietjet and the local aviation industry are ready to return to international skies from July with careful preparations to control the epidemic and ensure medical safety for its passengers and staff while contributing significantly to economic and investment recovery.

Currently, the Vietnamese Government is implementing many practical programmes and solutions to support airlines such as tax and fee reductions and loans with low rates. Based on this reality, Vietjet is striving to operate 90 aircraft with more than 118,000 flights and transport more than 20 million passengers by the end of 2020.

To this end, Vietjet will concentrate on carrying out cost-optimising solutions such as fostering its cargo service, aircraft purchase, diversifying credit loans solutions and expanding self-serving ground operation, and aim for the air transport, its core business, to reach break-even point by the end of 2020.

The carrier will also continue to strongly grow its loyal customer base and boost the effectiveness of financial activities and applications on e-commerce platforms while digitally transforming operating systems and procedure by applying advanced management software and programmes in operation as well as thoroughly arranging flight routes and fleet.

At the meeting, Vietjet shareholders agreed to pay a dividend of 2019 up to 50 per cent per share. This is the result of the financial accumulation gained from the airline’s sustainable, safe and effective development in recent time.

Vietjet's Shareholders' Meeting took place in HCM City on Saturday. —  Photo courtesy of Vietjet

According to the Executive Board’s report from the AGM, 2019 continued to reveal the airline’s strong growth and sustainable development with positive business results. Also, 2019 marked an important milestone in the new-age carrier’s journey as the airline celebrated transporting 100 million passengers.

In 2019, Vietjet's audited air transport revenue reached more than VNĐ41.25 trillion (US$1.77 billion), up 22 per cent year-on-year while its pre-tax profit hit over VNĐ3.86 trillion ($166 million), a yearly hike of 27 per cent.

As per the report, Vietjet’s consolidated pre-tax revenue and profit in 2019 topped VNĐ50.6 trillion and VNĐ4.56 trillion respectively.

Noticeably, the carrier's ancillary revenue saw a significant rise of 36 per cent to VNĐ11.34 trillion in 2019. The portion of ancillary revenue in the airline’s total air transportation revenue also increased from 25.3 per cent in 2018 to 30.4 per cent in 2019, making Vietjet one of the top ranking airlines globally in terms of ancillary revenue over total revenue ratio.

Last year, Vietjet opened 34 new routes, increasing the flight network to 139, including domestic routes and 95 international routes. Also in 2019, it transported more than 25 million passengers, reaching the accumulated transported passenger up to 100 million, creating a solid base for Vietjet’s post-pandemic rebound.

In the same year, Vietjet Aviation Academy continued to invest, aware that expansion will play a critical role in the airline’s sustainable development plan. The airline’s academy is now one of the region's leading modern-scale, specialised institutions for aviation training.

Vietjet was also honored to receive a number of prestigious awards in 2019 such as ASEAN’s Best Aviation Enterprise Award from ASIAN-BAC. The airline was also named ‘Asia Pacific Low Cost Carrier of the Year’ by CAPA and one of Việt Nam's 50 best listed companies in 2019 by Forbes. The airline was also listed in the Top 50 airlines for healthy financing and operations for the second consecutive year by AirFinance Journal.

All of these successes achieved in 2019 have helped Vietjet become a major airline that significantly contributes to the development of Việt Nam’s aviation industry as well as both the national and global economic recovery. — VNS