News
Vietstar applies for AOC, VietJet’s Thao to become Vietnam’s first woman billionaire after IPO
April 1st 2016
Vietnamese media reports this week said the country’s Ministry of Transport has asked the Prime Minister’s permission to grant an air operator’s certificate (AOC) to Vietstar Airlines Multirole Corporation for domestic passenger and cargo services. Read More » Established in 2010, Vietstar – owned by the Vietnamese People’s Air Force which falls under the Ministry of National Defence – has until now been offering air taxi services using small commuter planes.
According to financial statements, Vietstar had equity of 652.7 billion dong ($29.29 million) as of December 31, 2015, 47.3 billion short of the minimum required capitalisation for an airline start-up. "The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) will create favorable conditions for Vietstar Airlines to participate in domestic and international air transport and direct the airline to become a cargo carrier," said its chief, Lai Xuan Thanh. Vietstar plans to operate an unspecified fleet of A320s and B737s during the first five years of operations.
Over at VietJet Air, the LCC’s CEO, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, 45, is set to become Southeast Asia’s first self-made billionaire woman should VietJet’s $1 billion IPO go ahead as planned within the next three months. While she has amassed most of her wealth from VietJet and real estate development Dragon City, Thao told Bloomberg she has never calculated how much she owns. "I'm just focused on how to boost the company's growth, how to increase the average salary for my employees, how to lead the airline to gain more market share and make it number one."
Thao is believed to own 95% of VietJet Air. She studied finance and economics in Moscow.
