“Vietnam is a dynamic and rapidly growing aviation market. The successful development of aviation will pay big dividends to the Vietnamese economy. It must be treated as a strategic asset and handled correctly.” – said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO in his keynote address. Aviation contributes $6 billion to Vietnam’s GDP and supports over 230,000 jobs. Between 2008 and 2013, Vietnam’s passenger traffic grew by 96%.

Mr. Pham Ngoc Minh – President and CEO, Vietnam Airlines said: “For stable development, the most important thing to Vietnamese airlines is to ensure absolute safety and complete flight service quality, especially improve the operation and on-time index. Airlines need to quickly participate in the safety management programs of Internaional Air Transport Association (IATA), then get the certification of IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA). To Vietnam Airlines, we did receive the IOSA certification since 2006 and has continuously being evaluated periodically to renew as an essential part of our airline’s safety management program. Vietnam Airlines has also actively integrated into international market by being the member of IATA since 2006 and the member of SkyTeam Alliance since 2010 which are the global prestige airline alliance and organizations.”

The topics discussed at the Aviation Day include Vietnam’s aviation infrastructure development, airline safety and airline priorities for airports. There were also two panel discussions: on the aviation policies, infrastructure, services that can help grow Vietnam’s aviation, and global trends and Vietnam’s integration.

In the IATA airline industry forecast from 2013 to 2017, Vietnam is expected to be the 7th fastest growing market for international passengers at a rate of 6.9%, and the fastest growing for international freight at 6.6%. With the ASEAN liberalization of the air transport sector from 2015, the demand for travel will continue to grow.

The Vietnam Aviation Day was held as the airline industry celebrates the 100th anniversary of commercial aviation. On 1 January 1914, the airline industry started with one aircraft, flying one passenger, on one route. This year, 3.3 billion passengers and 52 million tonnes of cargo will be transported safely, supporting jobs for 58 million people worldwide and delivering goods worth some $6.8 trillion, a third of the goods traded internationally by value.