At this years star studded Asia & Oceania Gala Ceremony of the World Travel Awards held earlier this month at the Gem Center in Ho Chi Minh city Vietnam Airlines scooped the award for Asia’s Leading Airline Brand and Asia’s Leading Airline –Economy class.
Despite a tough field of nominees the airline was crowned Asia’s best after a period of healthy growth and development.

BTN caught up with the airline following the event and posed several questions to them:

BTN: Tell us about your company and the kind of services you offer

VA: Established on 27th May 1995, Vietnam Airlines is the Vietnamese flag carrier, playing a major role in the air transport of Vietnam and the region.

Vietnam Airlines provides air transport services on nearly 100 routes to 54 domestic and 39 international destinations. Operating a modern fleet of more than 100 aircraft, Vietnam Airlines is the first airline in Asia-Pacific to simultaneously operate two new generation aircraft Boeing 787 and Airbus A350.

Vietnam Airlines’ takes great pride in offering its passenger’s consistent on-time-performance, absolute safety, high quality services embedded with Vietnamese cultural identity. Vietnam Airlines has maintained Skytrax’s 4-star service quality for years and is gradually upgrading to 5-star standard.

BTN: Which routes or destinations do you see the most potential for growth and why?

VA: Currently, Vietnam Airlines is focusing resources on countries and territories that have been open and have eased entry procedures for international passengers. For example, Europe has been fully open, Vietnam Airlines is operating with good results, high occupancy rate. We have been increasing flight frequency to France and Germany. Southeast Asian routes are also recovering quickly and are being operated efficiently. In Northeast Asia, South Korea, an attractive destination, has eased entry procedures and is boosting tourism demand. Besides, India and the United States will be new potential destinations to which Vietnam Airlines is planning to increase flights in the future.

BTN: What does it mean to you to have won the award ‘Asia’s Leading Airline Brand 2022: Vietnam Airlines’?

VA: The award is the passengers’ valuable recognition for Vietnam Airlines products, services and the brand. We are delighted when their recognition is not only for a specific product or service, but also for the brand. This affirms that Vietnam Airlines’ development efforts have brought clear and comprehensive results. The trust of domestic and international communities will be an important foundation for Vietnam Airlines to continue to improve service quality and reach out to the world.

BTN: Do you have any plans to improve/change your current cabin class offerings?

VA: Upgrading service quality and improving customer experience are the goals for which Vietnam Airlines is always aiming. Researching trends and customer psychology after the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnam Airlines constantly researches and deploys many new services, bringing new and unexpected experiences to passengers.

Recently, we have launched a new menu with special European-Asian dishes on Vietnam Airlines flights. Passengers will be able to enjoy famous regional dishes of Vietnam such as Hanoi vermicelli and grilled chopped meat, beef stew with baguette, Hue beef noodle soup, Quang noodles, My Tho noodle soup or Thang Long fried fish, etc. for the first time. Vietnam Airlines also researches and uses new materials for eating utensils such as lightweight bone China with the high aesthetics.

In addition, to make each flight an unforgettable experience, Vietnam Airlines focuses on improving the quality of entertainment services before, during and after the flight. In addition to publications such as Heritage, Heritage Fashion, entertainment store on FPT Play application and seatback screens are always updated with attractive film and music programs, the total duration is over 1200 hours of experience. Simultaneously, with the goal of accelerating digital transformation, Vietnam Airlines has deployed digital newspaper application PressReader. Passengers of Vietnam Airlines can explore a huge library with more than 7,000 categories of newspapers and magazines in more than 70 different languages.

BTN: Since the introduction of Fly Pro, your flight delay/cancellation insurance, how successful has this been in light of the volatility of global airline schedules and the extensive cancelations passengers have witnessed over the past few months post Covid?

VA: We have received positive signals from passengers for FlyPro. The benefits passengers on flights are protected when the flight schedules are changed. Since the launch, we have recorded that the average growth rate of customers using FlyPro reaches 10% per month.

BTN: How has membership of SkyTeam affected your passenger numbers and destination traffic?

VA: Since Vietnam Airlines joined the SkyTeam global airline alliance in 2010, it has achieved positive results, especially in terms of passenger numbers and destination traffic. Through cooperation and joint venture with SkyTeam member airlines, Vietnam Airlines has expanded its flight network to 63 more routes to 46 destinations that Vietnam Airlines does not operate directly. The total number of passengers that Vietnam Airlines and SkyTeam member airlines cooperate to transport reaches millions of passengers. The number of members of Vietnam Airlines traveling on flights of SkyTeam members, and the number of SkyTeam member airlines traveling on flights of Vietnam Airlines have increased over the years. Cooperating and associating services, brands and images with SkyTeam also help Vietnam Airlines attract passengers globally.

BTN: How do you think your staff and customers perceive the value of this award and others you receive and how do you inform them of your successes?

VA: All our staff at Vietnam Airlines are delighted and honoured to receive these prestigious awards from the World Travel Awards. The awards from the World Travel Awards are testaments to the trust of passengers, domestic and international communities in the quality of products and services of Vietnam Airlines.
We would like to express our deep gratitude to all customers and communities around the world that have voted for Vietnam Airlines. The trust and valuable support of customers is the most important basis for us to achieve this result.

In addition to widely reporting on the World Travel Awards 2022, we will continue to make constant efforts to build upon the results achieved, actively research and improve the quality of products and services in order to superiorly satisfy the needs of global passengers.