HCM City (VNA) - Despite increasing challenges in the wake📖 of the ASEAN Open Skies policy, Vietjet recorded positive growth through 2015.

Vietjet posted a year-on-year growth of 205 percent in 2015 with a revenue of 10.9 trillion VND (490.7 million USD), fulfilling its yearly target, the airline said in its statement. With its ambition to make air travel the most popular transportation means for Vietnamese and travellers in Vietnam, Vietjet has being expanding its domestic and international network. As of December 31, 2015, Vietjet has been operating 40 routes (28 domestic routes and 12 international routes) with 30 new, modern A320s and A321s aircraft. Last year, the airline transported more than 9.3 million passengers, a highly impressive increase of 66 percent against 2014. Meanwhile, the airline's load factor remained high at approximately 88 percent in operating 58,355 flights with an on-time performance (OTP) ratio of 82.58 percent. As a result, Vietjet has significantly contributed to the country's domestic air transportation growth in 2015. Remarkably, the airline reached a technical reliability rate of 99.56 percent in 2015 – the highest among Vietnam-based airlines operating A320 family as the result of strict procedural policy and effective investment in all technical activities. Vietjet also received a Certificate of IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) from the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) for its outstanding operational standards in the first quarter of 2015. To date, only 16 percent of the world's total operating airlines have been granted with this renowned certification. The airline's training centre, which opened in early 2015, has so far trained and certified nearly 7,429 staff as well as providing 635 training courses in aviation skills for engineers, pilots, flight safety management and other employees. In order to facilitate future growth, the carrier has also signed numerous agreements and contracts to buy and lease more aircraft as well as cooperate with companies from all over the world such as Airbus, Honeywell Aerospace, BNP Paribas, and JPMorgan Chase, in addition to Willis Group Holdings. For 2016, Vietjet has set a target of transporting 15 million passengers with OTP ratio of 85 percent. Top priority this year will be given to expanding its domestic network and strengthening its international operations while improving service quality, especially for SkyBoss and in-flight services, in an attempt to achieve a passenger satisfaction rate of 99 percent and a return-customer rate of 95 percent in 2016, the airline noted.-VNA