Vietjet Air named among world's top 10 budget airlines

By Hoang Phong July 18, 2022 | 12:22 am PT

A Vietjet aircraft prepares to land at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City in June 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

Vietnam's Vietjet Air has made it onto the list of 10 best budget airlines for 2022 by AirlineRatings, the world's only airline safety and product rater.

The budget carrier, owned by billionaire Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, has joined the list along with the U.S.'s Allegiant Air and Southwest, Malaysia's AirAsia, Switzerland-based EasyJet, Canada’s Flair Airlines, Ireland’s Ryanair, Australia's Jetstar, Emirati government-owned Fly Dubai and Singapore's Scoot.

The ranking was drawn up by Australia-based AirlineRatings.com, which monitors 385 carriers and considers audits from several factors like safety, innovation, passenger comfort, service, and staff engagement.

Airlineratings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas said "each of these airlines has a good safety record and has made a big difference in their respective markets."

All chosen airlines have either good safety and incident records or have completed the International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit.

Budget airline Vietjet targets profits of VND1 trillion (US$43.14 million) this year, 10 times the 2021 figure, as it seeks to recover from a two-year slump caused by Covid-19.

Vietjet plans to return to its pre-pandemic schedule domestically and resume 70 percent of international flights.