Vietjet has pulled the plug on its plans to fly to Auckland.
The low cost carrier has withdrawn its slots at Auckland Airport this summer, after announcing plans to operate to this country during Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s visit to Vietnam in Feb. VJ is embroiled in a dispute with an aircraft lessor over hundreds of millions of dollars, has been contacted for comment about the decision to quit this country before starting.
. . . No Plans
The blow to travellers, wanting to get to increasingly popular Vietnam, was described by AKL’s chief customer officer Scott Tasker as disappointing. “Veitjet has just recently withdrawn landing slots for Auckland Airport for this coming northern winter. And our understanding is there’s no concrete plan beyond that to launch services,’’ he says. “It’s certainly an unfortunate setback with regards to Vietjet.’’
. . . Strong Growth
VJ is a publicly listed airline majority-owned by billionaire Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao and has been growing strongly in the last few years. AKL worked with the airline for some time before the announcement earlier this year and Tasker says it would continue to work with it on its medium term plans. The airline had planned four services a week between Ho Chi Minh City and AKL over the Kiwi summer and would have plugged a gap in the market to South East Asia. Capacity to AKL is still down about 20% on pre-pandemic levels. Agents had earlier welcomed the return of services to the country, last flown by NZ on a seasonal basis for three years until 2018.
