Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup confirmed Tuesday it had established Vinpearl Air Aviation JSC, a Hanoi-based company operating in the aviation sector.

Vinpearl Air Aviation has a charter capital of VND1.3 trillion (US$56 million) and a headquarters based at the Vinhomes Riverside urban area in Long Bien District.

Formerly VinAsia Development Service and Trading JSC, Vinpearl Air acquired its current trading name on May 29, 2019 after registering for a name and line of business (LOB) change with the Hanoi Department of Planning and Investment.

VinAsia Tourism Development JSC, another arm of Vingroup, holds a 45-percent stake at Vinpearl Air, while entrepreneurs Hoang Quoc Thuy and Pham Khac Phuong hold a 30-percent and 25-percent stake at the company, respectively.

Phuong is a veteran executive at Vingroup while Thuy ran a now-defunct company that was one of the group’s major stakeholders.

An announcement on VinAsia Development Service and Trading JSC’s change of name and line of business to Vinpearl Air Aviation JSC.

Vingroup also announced Tuesday is working with the CAE Oxford Aviation Academy to establish the VinAviation School and Vinpearl Air Training Centre in Vietnam, with enrollment expected to open this August.

Under a deal signed between Vingroup and the academy, the VinAviation School is designed to train pilots and technicians meeting standards set by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) as well as by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA).

Meanwhile, the Vinpearl Air Training Centre will offer training for regular level upgrade of pilots, machinists, flight operators, and flight attendants, among others.

The collaboration with the CAE Oxford Aviation Academy follows Vingroup’s recently-inked cooperation pact with CAE Inc., a Canadian manufacturer of simulation and modeling technologies and training services to airlines.

Per the pact, the sides set goal to annually provide 400 qualified pilots and technicians for the Vietnamese aviation market.  Vingroup vice chairman and general director Nguyen Viet Quang said the company aims to tackle Vietnam’s pilot shortage and export pilots overseas through the opening of its pilot school and training center.

Vietnam currently has five airlines in operation – Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Bamboo Airways, Jetstar Pacific Airlines, and VASCO.

Approval from the Vietnamese prime minister, after intensive evaluations from the Ministry of Planning and Investment and Ministry of Transport, is required for forming any new airline in the Southeast Asian country.

Vingroup has investments in multiple sectors including real estate development, retail, healthcare, hospitality, education, automobile manufacturing, scientific research and artificial intelligence development.

The conglomerate reported a consolidated revenue of VND122,575 billion ($5.28 billion) in 2018, up 37 percent from the previous year.

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