VietJet To Fly C909 In Coming Days As Vietnam Amends Import Policies

VietJet Air plans to commence Comac C909 operations starting April 19 after the LCC sold tickets for flights on Hanoi-Con Dao and Ho Chi Minh City–Con Dao routes.

The country’s government has also published a “decree” that will allow the import of aircraft certified by Brazil, China and Russia.

VietJet will become the third international airline to operate the C909 after TransNusa Air Service and Lao Airlines and the largest airline group among the three. The C909 has a layout of 78 to 97 seats and a range of 2,225 to 3,700 km (1,200 to 2,000 nm).

Due to the short runway at the resort island, Con Dao was only reachable from Ho Chi Minh City using Vietnam Airlines’ ATR 72 turboprop. Bamboo Airlines later dominated the route with a nonstop Hanoi–Con Dao and Ho Chi Minh City–Con Dao route with an Embraer E175. VietJet will operate 2X daily flights for each route.

It was initially reported that VietJet was wet leasing a pair of C909s in January to operate during the peak Tet holiday season, but the plan was put on hold due to regulatory issues.

The Vietnam ministry of construction, which oversees the import of aircraft, initially only allowed aircraft with type certificates issued by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, the U.S. FAA and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

The latest Decree 89 expands that to aircraft certified by the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC), Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA), the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the Federal Agency for Air Transport of the Russian Federation (Rosaviatsiya), and UK CAA. The ministry said the move will allow Vietnamese carriers to have flexibility in sourcing aircraft especially after the capacity crunch following the pandemic.

The latest move coincided with China’s leader Xi Jinping’s April 14–15 visit to Vietnam.