Vietjet Air targets young aircraft fleet to keep costs low

The planes are expected to be delivered between 2020 and 2025, Vietjet CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao said recently.

But some analysts have questioned whether Vietjet is equipping itself with way too much aircraft, given that it already owns 62 Airbus narrow body jets.

The carrier, which leads the domestic market with a 45 percent share, expects to receive 30 new aircraft and “retire” 10 each year between 2020 and 2025 to keep its fleet young, Thao said.

“The average age of Vietjet aircraft is three years now and we want to keep it that way,” she said on the sidelines of a CEO conference in Bangkok.

The average age of Vietjet’s planes is half that of other low-cost and fast-growing carriers in Asia like Malaysia’s AirAsia, Indonesia’s Lion Air and India’s IndiGo, according to Airfleets.net.

“The main reason for the young fleet is to keep the maintenance and fuel costs low and to ensure a good service for passengers on fresh, convenient planes,” said Thao.

Deliveries of those planes are expected to happen from now until early next year.Last month, Vietjet inked a deal to buy 10 Airbus aircraft worth $1.24 billion from Japanese and French companies.

Thai Vietjet, which operates under a franchise contract in Thailand, is flying with seven jets and expected to add ten more jets each year, the carrier had said this month.

Vietjet runs 385 flights daily within Vietnam and to Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, mainland China, Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia.