Vietnam Air Services Company (VASCO) ( vi, Công ty bay dịch vụ hàng không) is an

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

headquartered in Tân Bình,

Ho Chi Minh City , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

, Vietnam. A fully owned

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a ...

Vietnam Airlines Vietnam Airlines ( vi, Hãng Hàng không Quốc gia Việt Nam, lit=Vietnam National Airlines) is the flag carrier of Vietnam. The airline was founded in 1956 and later established as a state-owned enterprise in April 1989. Vietnam Airline ...

, it mainly operates regional scheduled flights on behalf of Vietnam Airlines. It also conducts charter flights, medical evacuations, SAR operations,

oil platform An oil platform (or oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, and similar terms) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platfor ...

s flights, and other aviation services. VASCO was established by government directive in 1987, and was originally a part of

, the

national carrier A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations. Hist ...

. It began scheduled passenger flights independently of Vietnam Airlines in 2004, and approval has been given for it to be partially privatized. It has been reported that Vietnam Airlines wishes to use VASCO as a basis for a

low-cost carrier A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

, established in conjunction with foreign partners.

Destinations

VASCO ATR 72-200 (VN-B208) at Con Dao Airport

As of 2019, VASCO currently flies to ten destinations in Vietnam.

Fleet

Vasco at Tan Son Nhat International Airport

As of April 2019, VASCO fleet consists of the following aircraft :

Former fleets

Here are the list of fleets formerly operated by VASCO. *

Antonov An-2 The Antonov An-2 ("kukuruznik"—corn crop duster; USAF/DoD reporting name Type 22, NATO reporting name Colt) is a Soviet mass-produced single-engine biplane utility/agricultural aircraft designed and manufactured by the Antonov Design Bure ...

* Antonov An-30 * BAE Jetstream

Restructuring and rebranding

It is believed that

, VASCO's parent company, wants to change the airline into a low-cost model, therefore changing VASCO's operational name to Viet Air. It is also believed that the airline would be serving domestic flights within Vietnam to destinations that are low-yielding as well as competing head on with

Jetstar Pacific Pacific Airlines Joint Stock Aviation Company (, operating as Pacific Airlines) is a low-cost airline headquartered in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. With its operating base at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, Ho Chi Minh C ...

and

VietJet Air VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Company ( vi, Công ty Cổ phần Hàng không VietJet), trading as VietJet Air (or simply Vietjet), is an international low-cost airline from Vietnam. It was the first privately owned new-age airline to be establ ...

. Vietnam Airlines would add more aircraft to VASCO's fleet if the plans are materialized. In April, 2016,

announced the establishment of the new VNĐ300 billion (US$13.4 million) airline in the previous month, based on the restructuring of its subsidiary, VASCO, to a new brand: SkyViet. However, in 2017, the plan was ultimately cancelled due to the requests from the stakeholders.

References

External links