The national flag carrier, Vietnam Airlines, has announced that it conducted over 25,000 flights, carrying 3.3 million passengers, in the first half of this year.

The carrier maintained a growth in both domestic and international transport markets with an occupancy rate of 66.1 percent and an average of 18,700 passengers a day, despite difficulties in fuel price increases, severe regional competition of airlines, and possible bird flu outbreaks.

Some of the achievements were attributed to flight timetable adjustments and price offers to different kinds of passengers.

In order to improve service quality and reduce delayed flights, the carrier invested in modernising fleets and personnel training.

As many as 100 engineers were sent to the US and 140 pilots to Russia and Ukraine for further training and 1,500 air hostesses were retrained on a regular basis.
The airline plans to buy and lease more Airbus A330s and ATR72s.