Move over Branson, there's a new celebrity airline exec in town: A pop music composer in Vietnam launched the country's first privately-owned airline this week.

Alongside a group of Vietnamese businessmen, Ha Hung Dung, who's also a judge on "Vietnam Idol," put up the $12 million in cash to buy two planes for Indochina Airlines. The new carrier has four daily flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, as well two flights daily between Ho Chi Minh City and the central coastal city of Danang.

Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar Pacific, both with foreign-owned majority stakes, also fly within the country. But even airline execs in Europe agree that the Asian market is the future of flying, and carriers in the region are all one-upping each other with aggressive expansion even in the current business climate.

As more people discover that about half of Vietnam's border is lined by white-sand beach, the carrier plans to add flights to Nha Trang as well as to the ancient capital of Hue. No word on whether Ha Hung Dung plans to blast his catchy tunes aboard the flights, but from what we've heard of Vietnamese pop, we're crossing our fingers that it's a no.

--Claire Duffett

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· Vietnam's First Privately-Owned AIrline Launched [AP]
· Fall The Best Liquor in Vietnam [Jaunted]]]> pbb 2008-11-26T15:17:32-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/11/24/51425/843

OK AirAsia, we know you’re one of the few carriers with healthy specs. But we think you might be getting a big ego. First, you offered an on-time guarantee and now your CEO is talking about growing AirAsia X, the company’s Australian subsidiary, tenfold by 2010. That’s faster than when Krispy Kreme suddenly glazed the entire United States in the late '90s.

Both AirAsia X and its Southeast Asian affiliate AirAsia are rapidly buying planes and adding destinations. And as Asian carriers ratcheted up fuel surcharges recently, founder Tony Fernandes scrapped AirAsia’s. Confidence is clearly not a problem for this carrier.

In fact, the one-year-old AirAsia X division will have one billion ringgit ($276 million) in profits by the end of 2009, says CEO Azran Osman Rani. This year’s profits will be about 350 million ringgit.

We’ll tell you if they back up the bluster with a flight review next week: We’re flying AirAsia from Phuket to Bangkok, and we're expecting to be impressed.

Related Stories:
· Malaysia’s AirAsia X Plans to Expand Sales Tenfold [AFP, via Google]
· AirAsia coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: christophe ramos]]]> ced138 2008-11-25T09:15:19-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/11/23/7394/8938

Though it has a perplexing business plan of always overcharging for its flights in Europe and simultaneously investing in a carrier that undercuts its competitors in the US (JetBlue), Lufthansa is offering another insight into its seemingly-obtuse thinking, this time talking up the future of Asia.

Seems investing in eastern markets is the new goal of the carrier--at least that's what the CEO of Lufthansa told his fellow executives at a meeting last week. The boss, Wolfgang Mayhruber, explained that the US and Europe currently hold 70 percent of the global air market but only 15 percent of the world's population. Talk about saturation.

He added that everything is going to change within the next 20 years and said that Lufthansa plans to invest in Asian markets, especially China and India. We already think cheap and reliable AirAsia is the best budget carrier we've flown in ages. Look for it to become the Southwest of the 21st century--unless Lufthansa comes up with some competition soon.

Related Stories:
· Lufthansa CEO Sees Long-Term Prospects In Asia [CNN Money]
· Lufthansa coverage [Jaunted]

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And we thought Michael O'Leary was overstating the likelihood of airline failures.

The situation is particularly dire in Asia, an emerging market where airlines surged ahead to suit growing demand, only to see their bookings fall dramatically when the economy took a hit. Carriers from India’s Jet Airways to Singapore Airlines are all frantically selling off planes and reducing routes in an attempt to mitigate hemorrhaging profits.

Says one industry consultant:

There is no airline in this region--and that probably goes for most of the world too--that can be confident they will still be here this time next year.

This is going to be a watershed, if it's not already, not just for the industry but for the global economy... Any airline that thinks otherwise is seriously at risk.

At least the service is still good. The day Asian airlines start cutting amenities so their in-flight service resembles the stiff and starving flights within the United States, we’re just going to give up traveling altogether.

Related Stories:
· Analsysts Warn of Asia Airline Failure as Tourism Slows [Reuters]
· "Dark years" Ahead for Asian Airlines [AFP, via Google]

[Photo: alex-s]]]> ced138 2008-11-03T15:30:07-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/10/10/52539/702

Macau's teeny tiny Viva Macau is doubling its fleet, which means it's adding two planes. With the new pair, Viva will add to its current destinations in Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Australia as well launching routes to India, Russia and the Middle East.

Viva Macau is actually one of the larger airlines in the Chinese SAR. That's because the government grants sole use of the airspace to Air Macau, which then leases the space to other carriers.

Viva Macau is still struggling to remain financially solvent, but executives hope booming tourism to the region--casinos and beaches draw droves of visitors--will help put the company in the black. We've seen the sudden deaths of too many US-based LCCs this year. Hopefully, for its sake, Macau is isolated geographically and financially from the rest of the world.

Related Stories:
· Macau Doubles Fleet, Staff [Macau Hub]
· Viva Macau is a Winner [Jaunted]

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This week, we're headed to Siem Reap, Cambodia, the small town on which some eight million tourists descend annually to visit the adjacent, famed Angkor Wat temples. But now, we're wondering if we should've delayed the visit.

Siem Reap Airways and its parent company, Bangkok Airways, have both cut their fuel surcharges on both international and domestic flights. An SRA spokesbot says:

We do not want to take advantage of people and try to earn more money after the price of crude has already dropped.

The 15 percent fee cut only saves passengers about $5 per ticket. But since that's the average nightly hostel budget for someone on the SE Asia travel circuit, every little bit counts.

Related Stories:
· Airlines Cut Fuel Surcharges [Phnom Penh Post]
· Cambodia Field Trip [Jaunted]

[Photo: Wikimedia]]]> ced138 2008-10-14T11:15:44-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/10/10/75348/992

Don't say we didn't warn you: We did. On October 8, a plane crashed for the second time since 2005 at the tiny airport near Mt. Everest, killing 18.

The 19-seat Yeti Airlines plane had nearly completed its flight from Katmandu when it snagged its wheels on a security fence at Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla, Nepal about 40 miles from Mount Everest Base Camp. Two Australians, two Nepalese and 12 tourists from Germany on a Hauser Exkursionen tour died. Only the pilot survived.]]> ced138 2008-10-10T10:30:42-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/