Executive Vice President (EVP) of VNA – Mr. Trinh Ngoc Thanh delivered the opening speech highlighting VNA’s achievement in 2018 and targets in 2019. Last year, Vietnam Airlines pocketed VND 73.5 trillion revenue and more than VND 2 trillion pre-tax profit, exceeding 2.7% of the planned target.

EVP Trinh Ngoc Thanh delivered the opening speech of the event.

Vietnam Airlines is among the world's leading airlines in on-time performance, scoring OTP at 90 per cent averagely. Mr. Thanh expressed his gratitude to the efforts and dedication of each and everyone involved, and his belief that 2019 will be another challenging, but rewarding year.  Thanh hoped all employees had a great time at "Vietnam Airlines Sales Day 2019", which was a great opportunity to know more about each other and exchange information.

Starting the presentation for the changes in products and services, Director of Corporate Planning and Development – Mr. Nguyen Quang Trung first introduced the fleet and flight schedule of VNA.

Director of Corporate Planning – Mr. Nguyen Quang Trung presented at the event.

2019 marks an important year when VNA further expanded its fleet by increasing A321 fleet by 8, A350 by 2 to serve HAN-NGO, SGN-SIN, SGN-PEK routes) and B787 by 3. The average number of aircraft increased by 10% compared to 2018.

The total number of aircraft will be increased significantly in 2019

According to Mr. Trung, trunk route HAN-SGN remains stable with high frequency, allowing VNA to serve increasing demand of businessmen and tourists and connecting flights within the day. This has contributed to VNAs competitive advantage over other domestic carriers.

In 2019, VNA forecasts a slight growth in both domestic and international routes and new destinations, along with the adjustment / increase of domestic routes to meet the market demand.

After the presentation, the sales staff had some questions for Mr. Trung. When replying to questions regarding VNA’s plan to fly to the US, Mr.Trung said: "On February 15, The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted Vietnam a category 1 safety rating, with this, Vietnamese airlines could set up direct flights to the US and implement codeshare flights with US airlines after completing the remaining steps. With the modern fleet and top notch quality service, I am confident that VNA will soon fly to the US".

Some employees also stated their demands on more flights to Cambodia and asked the Board of Directors for consideration, as Cambodia is a market with high potential. In reply, Mr. Trung revealed that in the future, VNA will sign many codeshare contracts with foreign airlines, allowing new routes to be launched.

During the presentation on the changes in service, Mr. Trinh Anh Thang – Deputy Director of the Passenger Service Department shared that in order to maintain the 4-star Skytrax quality, VNA has been studying the passenger needs and trend from every aspect: demand for different types of products and services; care and respect; journey information; waiting time reduction; use of personal devices; self-check-in and boarding.

Mr. Thang believed that in order to maintain the 4-star Skytrax quality, VNA needs to constantly change and develop the cooperation with potential partners.

Moreover, VNA is constantly changing and cooperating with major partners such as ANA catering service, Luke Nguyen, Time, Independent…to enrich the application of technologies on meal services, entertainment and utility services on board, etc.

Sales staff excitedly discussing at the event.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Tung, LotuSmile Director predicted that in 2019, we will witness a substantial increase in membership (36% more compared to 2018); revenue from Miles fare will rise by 15% and the gross revenue from LotuSmile program will rise by 19% to reach the target of $512,489,451 in 2019.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Tung – LotuSmile Director predicted that in 2019, the program will see a big growth in membership.

LotuSmile program offers a number of benefits to passengers such as accumulating bonus miles to purchase air tickets or other VNA products (this also helps increase the liquidity of accumulated miles), free Internet access during the flight and priority rights which are gradually increased in proportion to the accumulated mileage.

In addition, the emergence of a new mobile application for LotuSmile program with a new, user-friendly design facilitates and speeds up the interaction with users. These factors not only contribute to the revenue of the program in particular but also of VNA, as well as opportunities for cooperation with foreign banks, attracting domestic and foreign customers.

Mr. Dang Anh Tuan – Director of Pax & Sales Marketing Department later clarified new business policies of VNA: clear classification of prices for each market group to minimize the debate time, optimizing revenue and ensuring market share and competitive advantage.

Mr. Dang Anh Tuan– Director of Pax & Sales Marketing Departments discussed new business policies.

To effectively implement above policies, VNA will constantly develop and innovate products and promotions thanks to agreements with major partner airlines and organizations, inflight utilities with the additional revenue is expected to reach VND 400 billion in 2019 and the annual growth rate of 30%.

The last panel of the day was presented by Director of Communication Department – Mr. Le Truong Giang about brand identity. VNA is the leading airline in Vietnam, one of the top in ASEAN, beloved for its service quality and strong brand identity with the vision of becoming a 5-star airline.

VNA’s Brand identity is a subject of attention among the staffs.

According to Mr. Giang, for domestic market, VNA focuses on advertising via digital channels and TV, social networks and cooperating with provinces to organize major events… For international market, VNA is keen on using TV and website (Tripadvisor, CNN …) as the mean of advertisement.

At the event, the salesmen also enjoyed the new promotional films for domestic and international markets. A proposal was brought up to have the KVs and TVCs translated into other languages. Accordingly, since the translation is done in Vietnamese and English, there are phrases which can’t be converted into other languages without losing its meaning, so a selection of ideas will be chosen to be translated ​​to fit with each market’s needs.