AirAsia Plans Vietnam Venture on Southeast Asia Travel Boom
AirAsia Bhd., the low-cost carrier headed by Malaysian tycoon Tony Fernandes, plans to start a Vietnamese carrier in a local partnership, as cheap fares and rising incomes fuel a travel surge in the Southeast Asian nation.
The region’s largest budget airline will partner Gumin Co., Hai Au Aviation Joint Stock Co. and businessman Tran Trong Kien for the venture, which is expected to start flying early next year, AirAsia said in a statement to the stock exchange. Gumin will own about 70 percent of the new venture, with AirAsia holding the rest.
Vietnam is the latest country to lure Fernandes, who is seeking to build a pan-Asian budget airline, as the 28 percent growth in passenger traffic was triple the pace in other Southeast Asian nations. The fifth-biggest market in the region has seen domestic traffic double since 2013, and the middle-class will comprise close to a quarter of its population by 2010, AirAsia said. |