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National airline of Vietnam. Airline, like many others in communist countries, was founded and owned by respective Civil Aviation Authority. Operations started in September the same year on domestic routes using Ilyushin IL-14s and Antonov An-12 aircraft.
Airline has grown from poorly performing regional carrier serving Laos, Cambodia, China and Bangkok in the 1970s and 1980s to become one of the premier long-haul airlines in Southeast Asia. In 1980 Vietnam Airlines joined ICAO.
In 1993 Vietnam Airline became flag carrier of Vietnam and marked beginning of dramatic turnaround in performance. First western built jets started to replace aging Soviet airliners. Regional airliner ATR was the first western built jet in its fleet and first one was delivered factory fresh in May 1992. The same year airline also leased Airbus A310 from China Eastern. In January 1993 Boeing 767 was leased from Royal Brunei Airlines.
Rapid economic growth that swept Vietnam since the communist government embraced free-market economy fueled impressive growth at Vietnam Airlines. Vietnam also built sophisticated maintenance base and in 2006 joined IATA.
Its network includes Paris, Frankfurt and Moscow in Europe, Melbourne and Sydney in Australia and flights to the west coast of USA are planned. In addition to serving dense domestic network, both its hub Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are connected with destinations in China, Japan, Korea and surrounding countries.
Vietnam Airlines has ordered Boeing 787 Dreamliners to modernize and expand its long-haul fleet.
founded - demised (age)
January 1956 - present (69years)
headquarters
200 Nguyen Son Street, Long Bien Dist., Hanoi
web
base airports
related operators
current /stored fleet (99)
