VietNamNet Bridge – Analysts now bet on the fate of Air Mekong
after hearing that the private airline cannot pay for fuel. Pacific Airlines
still has reported a loss for the last five consecutive years of operation.
In October 2010, the aircraft
bearing the image of red-head cranes--a symbol of Air Mekong, began taking off and
providing first commercial flights. People believed that the owners of the
airline had enough time to learn the lesson from the failure of another private
air carrier – Indochina Airlines – which had to stop operation just one year
after operation.
And it was true that Air Mekong
did not follow the same way as Indochina Airlines. Understanding that it would
have to confront the big guy – the national flag air carrier Vietnam Airlines –
if providing flights on the backbone route Hanoi – HCM City, Air Mekong decided
to exploit niche markets first. It hoped that after getting improved in
financial capability and serving experience, it would jump into the main route
as well.
However, Air Mekong’s performance
has not gone as smoothly as expected.
In November 2012, Luong Hoai Nam
resigned from the post of General Director of Air Mekong. A rumor then was
spread out that the main reason behind the reason was the “problem” in Air
Mekong.
Four months later, Vinapco, the
air petrol supplier, told the press that it sent eight documents to Air Mekong,
urging the air carrier to make payment for fuel.
Bad news has come in rapid fire.
Most recently, the airline sent a notice to booking agents that it would
temporarily flying from February 29, 2013, so as to make preparatory steps to
shift to fly with a new fleet (A320 or B737).
Some abnormal things have been
found in the notice. In general, airlines need to prepare their flight
schedules 3-6 months in advance, because there are always a lot of things to
do, from running marketing campaigns, arranging in-land services, arranging the
crew and traffic control. Meanwhile, Air Mekong seems to “let the grass grow
under its feet.”
There’s one thing that interests
all people that if the current Air Mekong’s financial capability is good enough
to charter new aircraft to replace the four operational Bombardier. The four
aircraft have been in the danger of being taken back by SkyWest, a US partner,
in February.
Centerforaviation.com (CAPA)
showed that in the fourth quarter of 2011, SkyWest incurred the loss of $1.7
million from its investment deal worth $10 million in Air Mekong, while the
loss is estimated to be bigger in 2012.
In the past, Air Mekong once
sought the Ministry of Transport’s permission to sell 30 percent of its stakes
to SkyWest. However, it seems that the loss has made the US partner rethink.
Air Mekong has recently signed a
strategic cooperation agreement with Eximbank on the bank’s capital
contribution of 11 percent, thus raising the chartered capital of the airline
to VND600 billion.
However, experts believe that the
leadership of Eximbank would think twice before it makes any decision on the
disbursement for the deal, while no bright prospect of the deal has been found.
What happened and is happening to
Air Mekong have made people think that the airline would have the same fate as
Indochina Airlines, which, after four times of braking promise to pay debts,
was forced to stop flying, but still owed money to Vinapco.
US$1=VND21,000
DNSG
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