タグ: LCC

Vietnam’s Bamboo Airways Set To Make A Name For Itself–But not just yet.

It is very interesting to see the ongoing evolution of air travel from the days of the grand and luxurious Pan American Airways to the Low Cost Carriers (LCC) of today. And while it might seem that there is not much room to carve out a niche in the airline industry, there is evidence to the contrary. Recently RG21 took a look at Air Astana, the national airline of Kazakhstan, a newcomer that has gotten generally positive reviews all around. Another new player with its cheerful green, white, and blue livery worth keeping an eye on is Vietnam’s Bamboo Airways. Their corporate motto is “More than just a flight.” With their user-friendly online presence and new equipment, they just might make the user’s travel experience live up to this ideal.

Bamboo Airways, which is headquartered in Hanoi, started operations January 2019 with an Airbus A320 as its first equipment. They have 15 domestic destinations including their hubs in Hanoi and Ho Chi Mihn City. Bamboo Airways flies Airbus and Boeing equipment. Airbus models include A319-100, A 320-200, A320neo and A321-200 and A321neo. They also fly the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.

Besides its domestic routes, Bamboo Airways has an ambitious menu of international destinations including:

  • Czech Republic
  • Macau
  • Japan
  • South Korea
  • Taiwan

The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner equipment was specifically acquired for long-haul routes like Hanoi-Prague. Flights were scheduled to start in March 2020, but with the coming of the Corona epidemic. European and other international destination schedules have been modified or cut back. The Hanoi-Prague flight has been pushed back to late spring and there has been no announcement of international flights scheduled to begin in June 2020.

It is truly unfortunate that the timing for this new member of the airlines community has come at the peak of the Corona epidemic. When the “all clear” has been sounded, Bamboo Airways will be in an excellent position to take advantage of the pent-up demand  for domestic and international flights and the travel boom that will surely follow. Let us hope that this is much sooner than later. (When do you think travel will “normalize” again? Please let us know your thoughts on this.)

Photo: Courtesy Bamboo Airways

 

Air Astana is Doing Something Right.

             by David Parmer / Tokyo

It is seldom that a person or organization gets positive reviews across the board, but that is the case for Kazakhstan’s national carrier, Air Astana. Customers and aviation writers give the airline top marks for both equipment and customer service. Air Astana is a relatively young airline, having first gotten off the ground in 2002. In the past 17 years it has moved from success to success, posting a US$5.3million profit in 2018 and being consistently profitable along the way.

Reviewers note friendly staff, clean aircraft and good service as reasons for customer satisfaction. A factor they also consider is its relatively young fleet: the average age is 7.1 years. (Legacy carriers, on the other hand, can have fleets with an average age of up to double this figure). Moreover, the fleet is constantly being upgraded.

Air Astana is flying mostly the Airbus A320, and has taken delivery of its first A321LR narrow body aircraft. The A321LR will replace its aging Boeing 757s and enable long-haul flights to destinations such as Tokyo, Singapore and Shanghai. In 2020 Air Astana will use the A321LR for its Astana-London route.

Air Astana’s latest success has been the launch of Kazakhstan’s first LCC: Fly Arystan. Launched in 2019, the LCC has already flown nearly half a million passengers. The airline is looking to have a fleet of 15 aircraft by 2022. The business model for Fly Arystan is low fares plus a high quality product.

The only cloud on the horizon for Kazakhstan’s booming airline industry’s seems to be a lack of infrastructure that can keep pace with its ongoing success. New airports and new infrastructure will have to catch up to the demands of a regional national carrier moving onto the world stage.

If you haven’t seen any aircraft with the distinctive Air Astana or Fly Arystan logos yet, there is a good chance that you will, for these two airlines are going places–literally.

photo: Air Astana Airbus, Christian Junker via flickr

Compiled from Web sources.