The company is seeking an urgent $518M bailout from the government as the coronavirus continues to hit its revenues.
It is likely to report a loss of $561M this year, with revenues falling by half from last year to around $2.2bn, CEO Duong Tri Thanh said at a meeting on Monday.
It has stopped all regular international flights since April when it operated only four domestic flights a day on average. In June the number of passengers rose to 84 per cent of the number a year earlier. “Since 1975 there have never been fewer flights in Vietnam’s skies,” he said, referring to the year the Vietnam War ended.
He expected the domestic market to recover to pre-pandemic levels only by the end of 2021, and the international market a year later.
