Vietnam Airlines still aims to be profitable this year

The above goal was submitted to the General Meeting of Shareholders for approval by Vietnam Airlines Corporation (Vietnam Airlines) at its annual meeting on the morning of June 28.

This year, Vietnam Airlines plans total consolidated revenue to reach 138,899 billion VND, an increase of more than 12% compared to 2025. However, the company expects costs to increase by nearly 20% to 138,389 billion VND.

In the first quarter, Vietnam Airlines achieved positive results, with a record consolidated profit of about 4,500 billion VND, of which the parent company’s profit alone was 3,948 billion VND. However, since April, the corporation’s operations have been seriously affected by the conflict in the Middle East, causing jet fuel prices to increase, affecting input costs and business efficiency. Jet A1 prices at their peak exceeded 200 USD per barrel, while the average in 2025 was at 86.5 USD per barrel.

In this context, according to General Director Le Hong Ha, Vietnam Airlines has proactively deployed many solutions to minimize adverse impacts, including optimizing the flight network, cutting and postponing unnecessary costs…

Explaining further to shareholders, chief accountant Tran Van Huu said that in the second quarter, Vietnam Airlines and domestic airlines had to pay an average fuel price of 182 USD per barrel, which is 100 USD higher than last year’s average.

“With the above price, Vietnam Airlines will incur additional costs of VND 7,000 billion in the second quarter alone,” Mr. Huu said. However, with proactive solutions as stated by CEO Le Hong Ha and support from the Government (reducing some taxes and fees), according to Mr. Huu, Vietnam Airlines can still record a positive profit of nearly 2,000 billion VND in the first half of this year.

After US-Iran tensions showed signs of cooling down in June, jet fuel prices dropped to 112-115 USD per barrel. Based on the assumption that the average fuel price in the last 6 months of the year is 120 USD per barrel, Vietnam Airlines estimates the average price for the whole year 2026 is about 128.54 USD – an increase of 48% compared to 2025. This level may cause the national airline to incur additional costs of 11,900 billion VND.

In the context of sharp increases in fuel prices, accounting for the majority of operating costs, Vietnam Airlines expects the parent company’s profit for the whole year 2026 to reach 101 billion VND and consolidated profit to be about 510 billion VND. “Although significantly lower than the plan achieved in the first quarter, this is still a goal that represents the corporation’s great efforts,” Mr. Le Hong Ha shared with shareholders.

Previously, during the period of stressful fuel prices in May, Vietnam Airlines leaders also expected that the company could lose money this year assuming the same production output as planned.

In terms of output, Vietnam Airlines is expected to transport 27.73 million passengers (up 8.1%) and 361.4 million tons of goods (up 6.2%) in 2026. Of which, international visitors reached 9.8 million, an increase of 13.4% compared to 2025.

The number of international passengers may grow positively when Vietnam Airlines expands its international flight network. In the first half of 2026 alone, Vietnam Airlines opened and announced a series of new routes to Amsterdam (Netherlands), Phuket (Thailand) and Colombo (Sri Lanka). Along with that, the airline also increased the frequency of operations to Singapore, Manila (Philippines), Moscow (Russia), Kaohsiung (Taiwan, China), Melbourne and Sydney (Australia).

In the coming time, Vietnam Airlines will continue to implement many strategic solutions to improve exploitation capacity, market expansion and operational efficiency. In particular, investing in a new generation aircraft fleet continues to be a key task with an investment project of 50 narrow-body aircraft expected to be received in the period 2030-2032.

In addition, Vietnam Airlines also plans to deploy a plan to lease 20 narrow-body aircraft to meet operating needs in the 2027-2028 period and plans to operate the first cargo ship in the third quarter. The airline also continues to expand investment in technical infrastructure at strategic airports, including Long Thanh international airport.