Hanoi (VNA) - National carrier VietnamAirlines said it had achieved the business target set by its shareholder lastyear.

However, the carrier said that with the budgetcarriers continuously expanding their operations on both international andnational routes, the competition had intensified.

In the domestic market, the firm supply was up32 percent in 2016 compared with 2015, but the purchasing power increased only14 percent, bringing down the average revenue of all airlines by 12 percent.

Meanwhile, the budget airlines expanded theiroperation to other regions, including Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia,marking a 14 percent rise in the market share from 8 percent in 2015.

Vietnam Airlines said the overload at airports,especially at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM City, had resulted inan increase of 1,392 flying hours, incurring an additional cost of 188 billionVND to the airline.

The firm predicted high growth in the aviation marketthis year with 23.6 million international visitors and 31.6 million domesticvisitors, a 14.7 percent and 12.1 percent increase, respectively, when comparedwith last year.

However, Vietnam Airlines said there would be alot of challenges, especially in the plan of repairing Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhatinternational airports, which may reduce their capacity to 70 percent. Noi BaiAirport will reduce from 35 flights per hour to 22-24 flights; meanwhile Tan SonNhat Airport will scale down from 40- 42 flights per hour to 28-30 flights.Therefore, airlines will have to restrict 15 percent of the total flightsarriving and landing in the airport in the day.

According to the business report of VietnamAirlines, the corporation operated 138,764 flights last year, up 6.4 percentcompared with the target for the year.

The 2016 aviation market’s growth rate was 25.7 percenthigher than that of 2015, in which international market increased by 17 percent,while the domestic market rose 33 percent.-VNA