"As soon as October 10, Bamboo Airways will have the first flight," said Trinh Van Quyet, chairman of FLC Group, owner of the fledgling aviation firm at the seminar themed "Aviation Development – The Driving Force of Vietnam Tourism Growth".
Previously, the airline went through the licensing process and in early this month, Bamboo Airways's establishment was approved by the Government of Vietnam with office in Phu Cat Airport in the south-central province of Binh Dinh.
Pending formal licensing, the FLC Group signed a commitment to purchase Airbus and Boeing aircraft, including 24 A321neo and 20 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft with a total contract value of $8.6 billion. Its orders are scheduled to be delivered as of 2020 so to prepare for its filghts in 2018, Bamboo Airways will lease the aircraft.
"We have prepared for this birth for four years and in the last two years, we finalized the preparation both in human and finance," said Quyet at the siminar.
The FLC chairman said he was delighted with the "tourism-aviation" model and well prepared for the launch of Bamboo Airways. By 2019 - 2020, FLC Group will have over 20 resort complexes in Vietnam, which is a big advantage in the operation Bamboo Airways.
"The tourism infrastructure and resorts have brought efficiency to other brands so there is no reason for the FLC to be ineffective," said he.
The first route Bamboo Airways planned to put into operation is Saigon-Quy Nhon or Hanoi-Quy Nhon, then there may be Van Don-Quang Binh, Van Don-Quy Nhon or Thanh Hoa-Quy Nhon fights. FLC group has and will have resort property projects in these locations.
Bamboo Airways is expected to become a five-star standard airline, but its fares will be low as a result of combining the benefits of the services within FLC's ecosystem.
FLC Chairman Trinh Van Quyet emphasized, "If a customer has fight from Saigon to Thanh Hoa for vacation in Thanh Hoa, we only charge rooms and no flight fares."
He added that the different point between Bamboo Airways and other airlines is that FLC's airline will have a fleet of 20 aircraft in 2018 while others only own small ones.
With the hybrid business model of traditional and low cost airlines. Bamboo Airways will provide both services and the ticket price is also in the middle of the two segments, which will be able to compete with Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air.
Dang Tat Thang, General Director of Bamboo Airways was confident that Bamboo Airways will achieve better results by taking advantage of the FLC's ecosystem.
Thang said Bamboo Airways has the competitive advantage that other major airlines do not have, which is the system of FLC resorts with the scale from 1,000 to 3,000 hotel rooms, apartments for rent and amusement parks.
