The national flag carrier described 2016 business growth as its best-ever achievement, informing shareholders that it operated nearly 140,000 safe flights, carrying more than 20.6 million passengers, respectively increasing by 13% and 21%, in 2016.

The firm earned over VND2.6 trillion (US$114.4 million) in pre-tax profit, up 1.5 times from the previous year.

The post-tax profit allocated to Vietnam Airlines is nearly VND1.74 trillion (US$76.56 million), VND736.52 billion (US$32.4 million) of which will be given to shareholders as dividend payments. 

While labour productivity continued to grow in 2016, the carrier’s employees benefited from higher salaries, up 4.7 – 12.8% from a year before, Vietnam Airlines noted.

At the meeting, participants also approved a plan to offer an additional more than 191 million shares at VND10,000 each for current shareholders.

This offering is expected to bring about over VND1.91 trillion (US$84 million) for Vietnam Airlines to cover the purchase of Boeing 787-9 and Airbus A350-900 XWB airplanes and other business activities.

In 2017, the company aims to serve more than 22.5 million passengers and gain VND87.9 trillion (nearly US$3.87 billion) in consolidated revenue.