Aviation corporations grilled with causes of airline problems

On August 16, the Prime Minister's inspection team headed by the chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung inspected three aviation corporations namely Vietnam Airlines (VNA), Vienam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM), Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV). 

The inspection aimed at promoting the implementation of the tasks assigned to the three corporations by the government and Prime Minister as well as the measures to promote production and trade activities.

The question was how corporations contribute to the 7.19% growth target in the service sector, which is an opportunity for the industry to develop.

In his opening speech of the inspection, Dung highlighted six concerns which need clarifying by the corporations.

Firstly, ensuring safety and security played an important part in the context of development. Mentioning recently incident occurring in Cat Bi airport, Hai Phong city when the staff of two flights could not get in touch with the air traffic controller, Dung expressed the safety in whatever situation.

Secondly, the aviation groups needed to increase the take-off and landing sequence. Dung pointed out that many factors are leading to the small sequence in Vietnam not only blamed infrastructure but also administration as it is impossible to double the 25 million passenger capacity of Tan Son Nhat airport when we have not been able to upgrade it and complete construction of Long Thanh airport.

Besides, ensuring the information security of the flights is crucial to ACV. There must be measures to stop cyber attacks that may lead to the suspension of flights recurring.

The fourth issue is related to flight cancellation and delay. Within last seven months, VNA’s punctuality rate has increased significantly, compared to that of last year; however, the number of cancelled or delayed flights is still high. 

Related parties must show responsibility for solving this problem. Prime Minister also mentioned the aviation civilisation, efficiency, and profit when the profit increased by nearly 10% in early months of the year but the after-tax did not increase equally. 

He also raised questions about the airport security control as some of them have never detected any drug trafficking cases and about the aviation infrastructure socialisation with the investment from society.

Next, Prime Minister proposed to speed up equitization, divestment, saying that the equitization process in ACV is still slow.

Finally, aviation should take advantages to continue its annual 17 - 20% growth. Aviation ought to enhance its administration and service quality with reasonable price.