Turkish Airlines and Vietnam Airlines yesterday signed an agreement to cooperate on air cargo with the possibility of forming a joint venture in the future.
Following the agreement, the two airlines said they would examine the potential launch of an air cargo JV providing customers with the “benefits of a larger, faster network with enhanced direct flights, a wider range of destinations, and increased frequencies”.
“Combining the resources of the two national airlines will support increased efficiency in the use of their aircraft capacities and further boost their position in global competition,” the carriers said.
Dang Ngoc Hoa, chairman of Vietnam Airlines, said Turkish Airlines would benefit from expanding its network to previously limited areas such as Oceania and Northeast Asia through Vietnam’s central geographical location as a transit point.
“Furthermore, by using freighters and connecting to Turkish Airlines’ global network of 345 destinations around the world, Vietnam Airlines will be able to significantly expand its scale. We hope this cooperation will facilitate Vietnam’s position and advancement towards becoming one of the leading logistics centres in the Asia-Pacific region,” he added.
Turkish Airlines chief executive Bilal Ekşi said: “Asia is one of our most important markets. Our efforts to increase our presence on this prominent continent continue unabated with our competent teams and R&D activities.”
“In an era where global aviation is shifting from West to East, these efforts are even more meaningful. I hope the collaboration we have started with Vietnam Airlines, currently focused on our air cargo brand Turkish Cargo, but planned to be developed in different categories in the future, will be beneficial and fruitful for both countries and both flag carriers.”
The agreement comes after the two national airlines signed a codeshare agreement for their passenger operations on routes between Vietnam and Turkey as well as neighbouring areas.
Also, air cargo demand out of Vietnam has this year been one of the bright spots in a lacklustre airfreight market.
The country is benefiting from companies looking to expand their manufacturing capabilities beyond China in order to reduce risk to their manufacturing set-up and benefit from lower wage economies.
This story originally appeared on Air Cargo News
