Pacific Airlines Selects Jetstar for its New Name
Low cost carrier Pacific Airlines is negotiating with Jetstar, the budget subsidiary of Qantas Airways Ltd, to change its name to Jetstar, general director of the Vietnamese airlines said.
The director Luong Hoai Nam said the new name will make the airline more well-known in international sky than the current one, adding that the two carriers are working on when and how the brand will be used.
Qantas now acquires 30 per cent stake in Pacific and is represented on the board of the Vietnamese airline. Its CEO and Managing Director, Geoff Dixon, is in Vietnam for a working visit.
Joint stock Pacific Airlines is known as the Vietnam’s second biggest carrier after state-owned Vietnam Airlines. However, it is little known outside the country.
The airline had to halt its service from Vietnam to Taiwan in May partly because the brand was not famous enough, Nam said.
Nam also disclosed a new service jointly offered by Pacific and Jestar Asia Airways between HCMC and Singapore, which will be launched in the next two weeks.
Pacific Airlines announced in August it will increase its fleet to six jets by 2008 and to 12-18 by 2010, from the current three Boeing 737-400s.
An official from the Finance Ministry said Pacific Airlines is now valued at US$167 million and Temask will spend US$50 million in holding 30 per cent stake of the carrier.
Pacific Airlines is now bearing a debt of VND215 billion (US$14 million) after ten years of operation. (Thanh Nien News)
Vietnamese
