AirAsia Aviation Group CEO Bo Lingam has revisited the prospects of the company starting a standalone Vietnamese operation, telling Bloomberg this week an AirAsia Vietnam effort is once again on the cards but that the company has no interest in setting up airlines outside Southeast Asia. ch-aviation has previously reported on plans by the company to start an airline in Viet Nam and also potentially Singapore.
AirAsia Aviation Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Capital A, has stakes in and manages the operations of AirAsia Cambodia, Thai AirAsia, Philippines AirAsia, Indonesia AirAsia, and the AirAsia X brands. Capital A's other aviation subsidiary, AirAsia Bhd, owns and operates AirAsia. AirAsia Aviation Group and AirAsia Bhd are soon to merge into a single investment holding company called AirAsia Group Sdn Bhd. Lingam will be in charge of the new entity.
Vietnam Airlines and VietJetAir dominate the Vietnamese market, according to ch-aviation capacities data. The two carriers have a market share of 38.01% and 37.53%, respectively (measured by weekly seat availability). Malaysia's AirAsia is the seventh largest operator into the market, with a 1% market share, while Thai AirAsia is the tenth largest operator with a 0.87% market share. Lingam did not provide a timeline for establishing an AirAsia branded carrier in Viet Nam nor say how advanced plans were.
