HANOI, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese realty giant FLC has decided to establish an airline with registered capital of some 31 million U.S. dollars to tap a promising aviation market whose annual growth surpasses 20 percent.
"We have recently adopted a corporate resolution on forming Viet Bamboo Airlines with registered capital of some 700 billion Vietnamese dong (31 million U.S. dollars)," Le Ngoc Mai from the Media Board of Hanoi-based FLC Group, told Xinhua on Wednesday.
The registered capital is the minimum level for operating 10 planes for international transport services, or 30 planes for domestic ones.
In the Vietnamese aviation market, there are now four airlines, namely Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Jetstar Pacific, and Vietnam Air Services Company (VASCO). National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines and budget carrier Vietjet Air currently hold the lion's share of the local market, around 87 percent.
In March, Malaysia-based Air Asia announced a plan on joining hands with a Vietnamese firm, Thien Minh Group, to eventually set up a low-cost airline in Vietnam.
Earlier, two Vietnamese carriers, Air Mekong and Indochina Airlines, closed after a short period of operating, mainly due to fierce competition and high operation cost.
Vietnam's aviation industry transported 18 million passengers in the first five months of this year, up 10.7 percent against the same period last year, said the country's General Statistics Office.
According to statistics from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, the local aviation industry served 52.2 million passengers last year, posting a year-on-year rise of more than 29 percent. Specifically, it transported 28 million passengers on domestic routes, up 30 percent.
Some 15 million people boarded flights run by budget carriers in Vietnam, mainly by Vietjet Air, in 2016. Meanwhile, 52 foreign airlines from 28 countries and regions tapped 78 air routes to and from Vietnam.
