Vietnam’s Jetstar Pacific announces growth amidst loss report
Thursday, December 20, 2018, 21:01 GMT+7
Jetstar Pacific Airlines found a report claiming 2018 as a losing year so annoying that it decided to release its own business performance report on Wednesday, breaking with its standard practice of keeping its financial results private.
In mid-December, Vietnamese brokerage firm Viet Capital Securities released a gloomy report claiming Jetstar Pacific, Vietnam’s first budget airline, was on track to chalk up VND750 billion (US$32.3 million) in losses by the end of the year.
The brokerage company attributed their analysis to Jetstar’s poor competitiveness and therefore an inability to offset the rising costs of fuel and aircraft leases.
A leader from the low-cost carrier promptly dismissed the report as spurious and groundless, asking Viet Capital Securities to retract it. The Jetstar executive also stated that the airline would reveal its performance “a few days later.”
On Wednesday, Jetstar officially fired back at Viet Capital Securities with its own report predicting VND9.1 trillion ($391 million) in revenue for 2018 – a year-on-year growth rate of 21 percent.
The boost in revenue and the implementation of cost management methods helped cancel the effect of fuel price increases in 2018, when global average aircraft fuel costs rose by 30 percent compared with the previous year, the airline said.
The operator carried a total of 6.2 million passengers over the past year and did claim a profit, but refused to disclose the number in absolute terms. Instead, the company reported that it had overshot its full-year profit target by VND161 billion ($6.9 million), adding that passenger revenue also surged by 27.6 percent year on year.
Jetstar Pacific, owned 70-30 by Vietnam Airlines and Qantas Group, respectively, recorded positive changes in its numbers during the year.
The numbers of passengers on domestic and international flights all climbed in the third quarter and it has maintained its high-quality service over the last three months, the airline said.
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