Vietnam's budget private carrier Vietjet Air has been named among the top 20 safest low-cost airlines for 2023 by Australia-based AirlineRatings.com.
Factors used to determine the top 20 safest low-cost airlines include; incident records over the past two years, crash records over the past five years, results of audits conducted by the governing body of aviation, The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), EU banned lists and fleet age.
AirlineRatings.com the world’s only safety, product, and Covid-19 rating agency has responded to industry and public requests to widen its safest low-cost airlines assessment from 10 airlines to 20 for 2023 from the 385 airlines it monitors.
The other airlines in the list are Air Arabia, AirAsia Group (AirAsia, AirAsia X, AirAsia Thailand, AirAsia Philippines, and AirAsia India), Allegiant, Air Baltic, Easyjet, FlyDubai, Frontier, Jetstar Group, Jetblue, Indigo, Ryanair, Scoot, Southwest, Spicejet, Spirit, Vueling, Volaris, Westjet and Wizz.
In July, Vietjet Air was named "Best Value Airline of the Year" for 2022 by Australia-based AirlineRatings.com, an air quality assessment organization, for its "low fares, superb cabin crew and innovation."
AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas commented that the airline is "extremely clever in its marketing and has amazing fares, but that behind the scenes lies a very smart and serious business plan that brings affordable travel to millions."
"The airline has a very modern fleet of Airbus aircraft and operationally is up there with the very best. Vietjet is a critical part of Vietnam’s booming economy and is enabling tourism to soar. The airline’s value to Vietnam cannot be measured in just passenger numbers," he added.
The carrier was the first private airline in Vietnam to offer domestic and international services. It has carried more than 90 million passengers and covered over 116 routes across the Asia-Pacific region. Vietjet is a member of the International Air Transport Association with an IATA Operational Safety Audit certificate and a technical reliability rate standing of 99.64%.
According to the data of on-time, delayed and canceled flights of Vietnamese airlines in November 2022 published by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, Vietjet recorded an increase in on-time flight rate compared to October 2022 with the rate of flights taking off on time reaching 94.3%.
In Q3, Vietjet Air reported net revenue of VND11,600 billion ($466.61 million), up 652% year-on-year, while after-tax profit was VND42.5 billion ($1.71 million), down 40%.
The budget carrier, listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange as VJC, said the main reason comes from the high cost of jet fuel averaging $130 per barrel, sometimes increasing to $160 compared to the average of $80 in 2019.