VietJet Air, the Vietnamese fledgling no-frills carrier, has confirmed its long-delayed Thai offshoot will start regular flights soon.
"I can confirm 100% that Thai VietJet Air (TVJA) will be up and running in the third quarter, around July and August," said Luu Duc Khanh, managing director of VietJet Air.
In an interview with the Bangkok Post in Bangkok, the Vietnamese executive stressed that final preparations are being made for the start-up of scheduled flights by TVJA out of Suvarnabhumi airport, Bangkok's gateway hub.
Luu: Thailand's airline business competitive
TVJA's launch has been deferred several times over the past two years, with the last planned date of March 29 this year being missed.
Mr Luu, 55, said the delay reflected VietJet Air's conservative way of doing business.
"Thailand's airline business is very competitive with too many airlines and what we have been trying to do is to find the right strategy to ensure that we can compete with others when we enter the market," he said.
TVJA is VietJet Air's first foreign joint-venture airline. The parent carrier wants to ensure it is successful so it can be used as a model for other joint-venture carriers VietJet Air plans to establish outside Vietnam in the future, he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Luu did not see the change of Thai ownership in TVJA earlier this year and designation by the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) of Thailand's aviation sector for having "significant safety concerns" as impediments to TVJA's launch.
Somphong Sooksanguan, the original Thai partner and founder of Thailand's Kan Air commuter airline, sold his entire 51% holding in TVJA to other unnamed Thai interest groups, citing differences in management style.
Part of the corrective action required by the ICAO and being undertaken by the Thai Civil Aviation Department to avert punitive action against Thailand-registered airlines is a recertification of licences granted to them, including TVJA.
"I don't see any problems with Mr Somphong's sale. A change of shareholders happens everywhere and we have the new Thai shareholders on board," Mr Luu said.
On the issue of Thailand's aviation safety oversight, he said the matter did not affect TVJA other than alerting it about the need for compliance with international safety standards.
"We are looking at the situation and preparing ourselves, but I believe the Civil Aviation Department is working very hard to make corrections. So I don't see this issue as an obstacle for TVJA at all," he said.
In preparation for the launch of TVJA's scheduled service, the airline has since early this year flown a number of charter flights carrying mostly Thai leisure passengers from Bangkok to Bodh Gaya (India) and Hue (Vietnam).
TVJA has one Airbus A320 in operation and the arrival of a second aircraft will allow the airline to start scheduled flights as officially required.
Its inaugural scheduled Thai domestic flights will cover Phuket, Chiang Mai and Udon Thani from its hub at Suvarnabhumi, said Mr Luu. International flights out Suvarnabhumi to China and India will follow soon after.
In an interview last December, TVJA chairman Nguyen Thanh Hung talked about adding three or four A320s a year to the carrier's fleet to support its growth. He also announced an ambitious target to carry 1 million passengers in its first year of operation.