Illustrative Image (Photo:news.zing) The national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines received the country’s “Excellent Airline” award at the International Travel Expo Ho Chi Minh City (ITE HCMC) 2015, which is currently underway in the southern city from September 10-12.
It is the 11th consecutive year Vietnam Airlines has joined the event as the official carrier, sponsoring discounted air fares for international customers and organising Vietnam tourism promotion programmes.
The carrier was recently named among the Top 10 Most Improved Airlines by the UK-based airline review organisation Skytrax.
This is part of the Skytrax World Airline Awards, the result of a survey conducted from September 2014 to May 2015 with the participation of 18.89 million passengers around the globe and announced at the Paris Air Show 2015 on June 16.
The award for the world's most improved airline represents the highest changes in ratings amongst the airlines featured in the awards.
In addition, Vietnam Airlines also jumped three steps to take 55 th place in the list of the world’s 100 best airlines for 2015.
Beginning with 25 international and 18 domestic routes in 1995, Vietnam Airlines now operates 57 international routes to 29 destinations alongside 37 domestic routes to 21 destinations.
It has served 1.39 million flights for about 160 million passengers, earning around 662 trillion VND (30.35 billion USD) in revenue thus far and paying over 30 trillion VND (1.37 billion USD) in taxes.
It expects to carry 17 million passengers this year, an eight-fold increase from 1995.
According to Vietnam Airlines General Director Pham Ngoc Minh, the carrier currently has 700 pilots, 1,100 qualified technicians and a fleet of 84 aircraft.-VNA
