Dynamic leadership sets Vietjet soaring high
KUCHING: Vietnam’s first private airline, Vietjet, attributes its success to its dynamic chief executove officer, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao.
Unlike other successful female entrepreneurs, Thao has been an endless inspiration in helping to promote the start-up culture among local businesses and entrepreneurs.
“Vietjet’s emergence is the single greatest factor in the facelift of Vietnam’s aviation industry, making flying more widely popular with Vietnamese people,” said Minister of Transport Truong Quang Nghia at a recent meeting between the rising private carrier and Ministry of Transport (MoT) leaders.
The MoT chief said that Vietjet’s entry into the field in late 2012 broke the monopoly which existed for years in the domestic aviation market, and laid the foundation for healthy market competition.
The carrier also gave 30 per cent of its passengers their first flying experience, many of whom could not afford the costs of higherpriced airlines.
In the past three years, Thao has met with leaders of global airline groups Airbus and Boeing to sign multi-billion dollar contracts on aircraft purchases, catching the attention of the global aircraft manufacturing industry.
Thao, who is affectionately called ‘the aviation princess’ by Vietjet’s cabin crew members, is well known in the investors’ circles through a string of major merger and acquisition deals in the financial and real estate markets.
She was the founder of Vietnam’s first commercial joint stock bank and is the owner of Danang’s Furama Resort, one of premier resort properties in Vietnam. She is also the owner of Phu Long Real Estate JSC, the developer of the upscale Dragon City urban area in Ho Chi Minh City’s South Saigon area.
Vietjet, with its fleet of iconic red-and-yellow planes, has been Thao’s most famous brand. In 2007, when Vietnam announced that it was ‘opening the sky’ to businesses from assorted economic sectors, Thao and her associates founded Vietjet Aviation JSC with the ambition to be named among the nation and region’s most prestigious airlines. After receiving a licence to operate flight services - amid Vietnam’s robust economic development in the first years of international integration - Vietjet was poised to grow into a five-star airline.
Staff were recruited at a generous pay rate, leading domestic and foreign experts in the aviation industry were invited to work for the company, and aircraft chartering contracts were signed.
But the global economic recession of 2008 changed the company’s course. “In the circumstances of the global financial crisis, VietJet paused to carefully consider its business plan and find a more suitable growth path,” said Thao.
The new path began with a shift from a five-star business model to a new-generation airline model, allowing passengers to self-select services they wished to use, instead of including everything in the base ticket cost.
Sorting out the right growth model was crucial to the success of an airline. Vietjet was shortlisted in its first year for ‘Top 5 Best New Route Launch’ at London’s Budgies and Travel Awards ceremony.
The airline posted profits in its second year of operation, and in the third year, Vietjet became the first private Vietnamese airline to fly to international destinations and form foreign joint ventures. Its revenue in its fifth year tripled that of its third year.
Vietjet’s success is instrumental to the Vietnamese aviation market, validating the government’s opendoor policy.
Thanks to the policy, air travel has reached every Vietnamese locality without the need for state capital investment, helping to propel economic, investment, and tourism sector growth in relevant locations.
The private budget carrier has also brought changes to the domestic aviation market, and a heightened standard that has improved service industrywide. In parallel with an improving national infrastructure, the Vietnamese aviation has enhanced its status in the regional and international arenas.
Besides being a steadfast negotiator and a careful planner, Thao has also shown a high consideration for labour. This value is now enshrined into Vietjet’s business philosophy.