Airlines around the world make just US$1 per passenger, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Airlines, Dang Anh Tuan, has told a seminar in Ho Chi Minh City. Dang goes on to lament the razor-thin margins in the industry and attributes increased ticket prices to rising fuel prices and a stronger US dollar.
The rising price of airfares in Vietnam has been in the news a lot lately. A review of airline ticket prices by the Vietnam Aviation Administration, however, after conducting a brief investigation, earlier this year, found that airfares prices have been within the current guidelines–in Vietnam airfares are regulated by the government.
That said, Vietnam’s domestic airline industry has taken a series of hits over the last five years that have seen two airlines on the cusp of disappearing altogether, and the national carrier at risk of being delisted from the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange. Price caps on ticket prices have been raised as one of the key issues facing local airlines.
For more information see: Vietnam’s Airline Industry Turbulence: Unpacked